Laughter the best medicine at Florida village for sick children
Published: March 8, 2006
Zyairah Hussein has been secluded from most of her playmates since she was diagnosed with kidney cancer last year. Instead of sleepovers and Brownie meetings, the 8-year-old’s days are filled with hospitals and chemotherapy.
But this week she got to hug Mickey Mouse and ride Splash Mountain, immune to the quizzical gaze of strangers, who often stare at her newly grown tendrils of black hair.
Hussein bounced her way through a giant game of Candy Land and spied the world’s largest gingerbread man Tuesday, along with dozens of other children with life-threatening illnesses, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Give Kids The World Village.
The 70-acre, nonprofit resort, works with about 300 wish-granting organizations around the country, to bring sick children to Central Florida. For one week, children and their families visit local theme parks by day and return to the whimsical village at night.
A giant carousel, mini-golf course, Castle of Miracles and an ice cream palace that opens for breakfast, are popular attractions at the village. But the biggest draw is 79-year-old founder Henri Landwirth.
Landwirth got more hugs than any of the costumed characters, stilt-walkers or balloon-makers parading around the amusement park he founded 20 years ago. Seated across from the castle Tuesday morning, it’s hard for Landwirth to finish media interviews because so many children stop to hug him.
One by one, dozens of children and parents stopped to thank Landwirth for granting their wishes.
Robyn Rothermel first met Landwirth as a 6-year-old battling leukemia.
“I was in a wheelchair. I hardly had any hair,” she said.
Eleven years later, Rothermel is in remission. She credits Landwirth as the reason she’s alive and the reason she joined the Army. Now stationed in Fort Drum, Spec. Rothermel will head to Afghanistan later this month.
“He puts the true meaning behind ‘laughter is the best medicine,’” she said.
Pat Bailey stopped to tell Landwirth that her son, Ryan, 19, who suffers from Cerebral Palsy, almost didn’t live to visit the village.
“He made his wish a year ago, but we kept putting it off with the surgeries. It’s meant the world to him,” said Bailey, who watched Ryan ride Splash Mountain three times and eat ice cream for breakfast.
When 19-year-old Katy Gore walked up to Landwirth, he greeted her with a hug and an invitation to join him for lunch.
Gore visited the village as a 2-year-old newly diagnosed with HIV.
“She’s our miracle,” said Landwirth.
Each face is a reminder of his own grim childhood.
“I saw the faces of the children and I realized that it was my face when I was young,” said Landwirth, who still bears the tattooed scars of the five years he spent in Nazi concentration camps.
“I didn’t have any control over my life and they don’t have any control over theirs,” he said.
After launching a successful hotel company in Central Florida, Landwirth decided to build his magical village.
When he bought the land, it was a burnt down orange grove. Today, the resort has welcomed more than 75,000 families from all 50 states and 53 countries.
“Children from all over the world are welcome here,” said spokesman Christian Cascone.
Salvana Gallant-Smith traveled from Alberta, Canada with seven family members. The five year old, who is in remission from leukemia, has never been to Disney before and can’t wait to see all the princesses, her mother, Robyn said.
“She wants to see Beauty and the Beast on stage. She’s really excited,” Robyn said.
Give Kids the World was able to house all of Smith’s family at their onsite villas, but they often rely on local hotels when the villas are full.
That’s why Landwirth is adding 144 extra villas as part of his latest expansion, which also includes a 15,000 square foot boundless playground that is accessible for wheelchair bound visitors.
Corporate sponsors such as Perkins, Proctor and Gamble, Wal-Mart, Universal Orlando and Walt Disney World donate millions of dollars annually to help defray the village’s yearly $7.5 million cost.
Each villa costs $140,000 and Landwirth said he’s counting on other corporations to help fund the project.
Families spend seven days in one of 96 onsite villas, while visiting local theme parks. Airfare, meals, attraction tickets and all other expenses are free. Back at the village, children can interact with other sick children in a land made just for them, where Mayor Clayton, a six-foot tall rabbit, tucks everyone in at night and Christmas is celebrated weekly.
When Landwirth first started the nonprofit organization, most of the children were dying before their wish was granted.
“There was so much red tape,” he said. “It took almost a year and a half to bring them here. Today we can bring them overnight, on a minutes notice, almost … And we never turn down a child.”
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