The Walt Disney Company has always been one to participate in charities and help those that are less fortunate. When you’re visiting the Orlando theme parks you see the smiling faces of cast members and realize Walt Disney World really is the happiest place on Earth. There are a lot of fortunate people that get to go to the Disney theme parks throughout the year, but there are people that never get to travel, let alone have a safe place they can call their own.

Homelessness is affecting the United States like never before, especially with the economic recession that we have been undergoing. People have lost their jobs and even their homes because of layoffs and other reasons—but the Walt Disney Company would never ignore the less fortunate. Over Thanksgiving, chefs from various Disney resorts came together with the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida to prepare meals for over 600 people. These people, which includes families, women, children and men, were all fed a traditional Thanksgiving dinner prepared by Disney chefs. Chef Tony Marotta oversaw the entire project.

Monthly, the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida prepares about 750 meals for the homeless in the area, but for the special Thanksgiving day feast, the chefs had to start two days in advance. It was a lot of hard work, but important work, as Disney firmly believes in the idea of VoluntEars and helping the community.

“When you see homelessness in the media, you are moved to humility and compassion, but when you see homelessness in person, you are moved to action,” said Trevor Larsen, WDW vice president of engineering services and manufacturing, who serves on the Coalition board. “There are plenty of ways people can help. Come meet these adults and children in need and get involved.”

If you want to get into the giving spirit, you can always volunteer at a homeless shelter or other charity foundation yourself. Don’t forget Disney is doing the Give a Day Get a Day program! If you volunteer and sign up on the website, all you need is proof of your day of service to get a free admission into the Magic Kingdom or any other Disney theme park!

Everyone loves to eat during the holidays. Why do you think gym memberships soar in January? After Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve and other parties people usually find their pants a bit tighter than they would like. But we’re still in 2009 and there is plenty of holiday fun to be had, especially here at the Orlando theme parks. We’ve been blogging about the various holiday events going on at the parks, but in this post we’re going to let you in on some of the sweet treats you can see if you visit some of the hotels in the Walt Disney World Resort.

Over at the Contemporary, one of the hotels closest to the Magic Kingdom, you can see a holiday tree inspired by Disney Legend Mary Blair. The tree is located on the 4th floor of the hotel and measures in at 17 feet high, made completely with gingerbread shingles. Disney has plenty of traditional sweet sculptures during the holiday season, and one of them is celebrating its 10th anniversary! Over at the Beach Club Resort, the life-size edible carousel is celebrating 10 years of pleasing guests from all over the world. The carousel is made of gingerbread, chocolate, and sugar paste. You can buy your own gingerbread house from the marketplace to take home with you. If you’re a fan of Hidden Mickeys, we hear the carousel has 10 of them.

For you Disney pin traders, make sure you head over to the Board Walk for their walk-through Holiday Gazebo. It also has Hidden Mickeys, but you can also purchase a limited edition Stitch pin featuring the gingerbread display. But the most popular sweet sculpture in the Disney resort world is housed at the beautiful Grand Floridian. Here you will find their enormous gingerbread house created from a traditional Austrian recipe. This house has been featured on a variety of travel show specials and is a highlight of the Grand Floridian hotel during the holiday season. It takes 400 chefs to bake everything needed for the house and 160 hours to assemble it. Make sure you explore some of these great edible sculptures during your visit to Walt Disney World.

This week is very special in Disney history and in the history of animation in general. On December 5th we will be commemorating the birth of Walter Elias Disney, the man responsible for bringing us the wonderful world of Disney Animation. The native Chicagoan began his industry in Kansas City where he began with small animated shorts that became so popular within the city that he earned enough money to create his own studio. From there he hired animators that would soon earn the name of the “9 Old Men,” animators that would help Walt create some of the animated classics that would make him a legend.

Walt first began his career with the Alice Comedies (not Wonderland Alice) and the animated cartoon of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. But it wasn’t until Disney lost the rights to Oswald and had to come up with a brand new character that a very familiar character we all know and love was born. Walt used to own a pet mouse as a child, and one of his animators drew inspiration from that to create Mortimer Mouse. But Walt’s wife Lily suggested Mickey was a much friendlier name, and thus Mickey Mouse was born.

Now seen all over the Disney theme parks and considered a classic American icon, Mickey Mouse made his first appearance in a musical cartoon in the black and white Steamboat Willie. Mickey Mouse soon took off, and with the addition of Snow White, Disney’s first princess, the Disney Animation Studio became a staple in American animation and movie making. Though there were set backs throughout the years regarding the animated films the Disney studio, we have the Magic Kingdom, Disneyland and all of the other parks of the Walt Disney World Resort to prove that the Disney Company overcame all of their adversity to become perhaps the most recognized name in the world.

There is so much that wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for “Uncle Walt” paving the way that a simple blog couldn’t capture all of it. But we do know that we have the theme parks, the movies, and an entire legion of loyal Disney fans that above all remember the main message of the Disney ideal; that hard work does make dreams come true. The next time you visit the Disney parks, just remember, it was all started because of a mouse. Happy Birthday, Uncle Walt!

This is a very special week in the world of Disney. Everyone’s favorite mouse, loved all over the world by kids and adults, is celebrating his 81st birthday this week! Walt Disney and his animator pal Ub Iwerks created the lovable Mickey Mouse all the way back in 1928. While Mickey began as a silent black and white cartoon in “Plane Crazy,” where he tries to fly a plane and sneak a kiss with Minnie Mouse at the same time, his official debut is considered to be in the musical cartoon “Steamboat Willie.” Disney aficionados will recognize the familiar image of Mickey steering a giant steamboat as he whistles along, and some may say it was with that cartoon that the empire of Walt Disney began. Who knew, way back then, that a little cartoon about a mouse would spawn the incredible Disney theme parks in Orlando and all over the world?

There’s a famous quote by Walt Disney that goes: “I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing — that it was all started by a mouse.” It couldn’t be a more honest and even fascinating statement. That little mouse trying to sneak a kiss and steer a steamboat gave birth to a company that would create Disneyland in Anaheim, California and the Walt Disney World Resort right here in Orlando. There are now Disney Parks all over the world including Tokyo, Paris and soon Shanghai. How can we forget the classic movies? From Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid and The Lion King to the brand new The Princess and the Frog, which features Disney’s first Black princess, Tiana!

There are also great television projects like The Mickey Mouse Club, which was where stars like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Justin Timberlake got their start. The Disney Channel expanded to produce a new level of teen stars with performers like Miley Cyrus, The Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez. Along with the great shows and theme parks, there are also special events where Mickey and Minnie are the star of the show; whether it be in a parade or through Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. Incredible how Disney has grown after 81 years, and it’s only going to get bigger. Happy Birthday to the mouse that started it all!

Here in the Orlando theme parks area we’re lucky to have a variety of great attractions to check out. Whether you want to spend time in the House of Mouse, check out Busch Gardens Tampa bay or go to Universal Studios Resort, the Central Florida area has plenty of options. Some places aren’t so lucky, and many visitors to the theme parks have to travel long distances to get there. Internationally, Disney has some parks in Europe and Asia. There’s Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland and Tokyo Disney. These beautiful theme parks bring the Disney brand to fans across the globe and let anyone and everyone experience the Disney magic in their region.

Now, after 20 years of long talks and plenty of paperwork, Disney is finally able to announce there will be a new park in Shanghai, China! This is great news for both countries as they continue to bridge political gaps and come closer together. As the Disney Company continues to expand across the globe we get to learn great details about new attractions and park development. It’s always interesting to see how the different countries incorporate their own cultures and different styles into the designs of their parks, and now we’ll get to see what with Shanghai Disney.

The resort will consist of shops, hotels and a “Magic Kingdom” style park that will take up 1,000 acres of the Pudong district. The actual theme park will be a little bit bigger than Disneyland in Anaheim, California but will still feature all of the great aspects guests expect of the Disney theme parks every year. The announcement of this awesome project will be official right around the same time President Obama arrives for his historic visit.

Since President Obama is going to visit China to talk diplomacy and trade, officials of the Shanghai Disney project figured it couldn’t be a better time to announce the Disney partnership than with the arrival of the president of the United States, where Disney was born. While there isn’t any word on an official ceremony featuring President Obama, or even a statement from him regarding the matter, his visit is timed perfectly with the announcement of Shanghai Disney. We can’t wait to see what the Shanghai Imagineers come up with!