Volunteering rewards with ticket to Disneyland

By Amy Berstein

Ever since Disneyland opened in 1955, it has offered a lot of reason to celebrate. Whether it is a birthday, an anniversary, a family reunion, the Year of Million Dreams or Disneyland's 50th anniversary, many families excitedly race to the park to celebrate and have a good time.

Last year, Disney celebrated birthdays by allowing the birthday boy or girl free admission to enjoy a day in the park. This year, Disney parks are offering a new reason to celebrate. The Disney team has decided to celebrate the joy of giving back and helping the community through the program Give a Day, Get a Disney Day.

In this program, Disney joined forces with the Hands On Network to reward volunteers with a free park ticket in return for giving their time and effort by helping out in the community.

If the volunteer wishes to upgrade to a multi-day ticket or park hopper, it is permitted, however they must pay the difference in the price. The value of the free ticket may not be used to combine or upgrade with a separate single or multi-day ticket.

According to Disneyland.com, people 18 or older can sign themselves up to volunteer at volunteer locations in their area.

Those under 18 but older than six are eligible to volunteer but must have a parent or guardian to sign them up. A maximum of eight people per household and only one ticket is given per person, regardless of how many times they volunteer.

To get started, a prospective volunteer can go to Disneyland.com, click on the Give a Day, Get a Disney Day link, search for their city and find the volunteer programs in the area that count towards free admission.

Some of the service opportunities include, but are not limited to the following: feeding the homeless, planting trees and cleaning up parks.

There are numerous opportunities available in the Santa Clara area. Heart of the Valley, Service For Seniors, Inc., asks for volunteers ages 15 and over to complete training, then educate senior citizens residing in Santa Clara about environmentally hazardous items that may be in their home.

Interested volunteers must fill out an HOV form and go through an interview process. In addition, they must attend an informational session and training about the products they will be working with.

Other organizations and opportunities include trail gardening and reseeding with the City of San Jose Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services, a senior nutrition hot lunch program with Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County, yard duty help with Don Callejon School Community Organization along with numerous other programs.

When the allotted volunteering day comes around, the volunteer completes the service and prints out the voucher for the free ticket.

The free ticket can be used at Disneyland, Disney's California Adventure or any park at the Walt Disney World Resort.

Certain rules and regulations apply and can be found on the Disneyland Web site.

The voucher can be used throughout the year, except for the following days: Feb. 13-14, Mar. 21, June 2-22, July 4, Nov. 21 and Dec. 11-12. It may not be used for Walt Disney World on Mar. 29-Apr. 8 and July 4. It also must be redeemed before Dec. 15.

Upon arrival at the park, photo identification must be presented along with the printed voucher with validation from the volunteer program.

If the volunteer has a season pass or already bought a multiple day ticket, they are still able to participate in the program and receive benefits.

Instead of getting a free ticket, they can choose one of three options on how to use the reward.

They can either choose to get Disney's Fast Pass Exchange Cards for up to five people in the party, a Special Ear Hat Figure or donate the ticket to either the Boys and Girls Club or Dreams Take Flight Canada.

With a number of opportunities offered by Disney all over the country, Disney fanatics or those looking to help the community have incentive to get involved and be rewarded with a day at the happiest place on earth.

Contact Amy Bernstein at aberstein@scu.edu or at (408) 551-1918.