The Walt Disney Company - 2008 Corporate Responsibility Report - Community - Employee Volunteerism and Giving

2008 Employee Highlights

With 130,000 employees in more than 42 countries, the efforts of our Cast Members and employees are too numerous to list. Here are a just a few examples of Disney employee giving efforts in 2008.

Children and Families

Hong Kong Disneyland Managing Director Andrew Kam makes Christmas cookies for a local children's hospital.

Disney VoluntEARS spent thousands of hours hosting parties and activities for hospitalized children, restoring and rebuilding rooms and play areas and delivering care packages. VoluntEARS also helped make wishes come true by escorting our special guests in our Parks and on sets, and sharing the Disney magic.
In September, VoluntEARS from our Shanghai office joined hundreds of school children at the opening of the Disney Hope School in Guangyuan, the third school built in Sichuan after the devastating earthquakes. The team also created a Disney Fun House activity room and a library in each school as part of Disney's support to the China Youth Development Foundation. Cast Members and employees from greater China also donated more than $9,000 to support the relief efforts.
VoluntEARS around the world are involved in reading programs for youth. In Hong Kong, the Disney Reading Together program, in its third year, sent more than 100 VoluntEARS to visit eight local school districts to share Disney stories with children.
In Los Angeles, Disney employees work with local schools through Disney Reading Together. This tutor-based reading program targets second-grade students who are reading below grade level. Disney Readers visit each week throughout the school year to help students develop their reading skills. Disney provides books, games and interactive support materials for the readers.
Our Cast Members and employees in New York are active mentors to students in their communities, particularly with students interested in the performing arts and in news production. For 16 years, VoluntEARS have mentored students at LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, building relationships between the mentor and student over a three-year period. The ABC News Division adopts a school each year, where VoluntEARS facilitate workshops in which the students earn academic credit by participating in journalism training. The students complete their requirements by producing news videos that are critiqued by VoluntEARS at ABC News.

Arts and Creativity

VoluntEARS from ABC paint murals to brighten the walls in places where children gather.

During the inaugural World Science Festival in May 2008, Disney Imagineers
gave children and families a glimpse of the science behind the magic at Disney theme parks. Three sold-out shows featured the innovation and technology required to create roller coasters, pyrotechnics, artificial intelligence and special effects. Throughout the event, Disney Imagineers and VoluntEARS interacted with students to share the importance of creative thinking and to get students excited about science.
Through a special collaboration with The Foundation for Hospital Art, Disney VoluntEARS paint murals side by side with children around the world. These brightly colored Disney themed murals help to bring hope to and brighten the walls of children�s hospitals and other places children gather.

Community Service

Disney VoluntEARS in the United Kingdom participate in an environmental clean-up.

For the third year, Disney was the title sponsor of Family Volunteer Day, a program of the Points of Light Institute/HandsOn Network. And so, the Saturday before Thanksgiving, Disney VoluntEARS around the world participated in a variety of family-friendly projects including packing food boxes for the homeless, building homes and doing clean-up projects.
In December 2007, Disney CEO Bob Iger, VoluntEARS and community members worked together to build a new playground for the children of the Boys & Girls Club of East Los Angeles. The project was completed in collaboration with KaBOOM! and TreePeople.
Throughout the year, VoluntEARS and their families participate in a variety of service projects to support the environment and conservation efforts. These events occur around the world. For instance, in Argentina, VoluntEARS planted 100 trees in the Nature Reserve of Vicente Lopez. The activity included education on the importance of planting native species and taking care of the environment.
In New York, VoluntEARS are active environmental stewards. Working with MillionTreesNYC and the City of New York, Disney is helping to plant trees in areas with limited access to green spaces. In May 2008, Disney VoluntEARS planted 60 large caliper trees in medians along a 30-block span on Broadway. Disney is also active in developing community gardens in blighted New York City neighborhoods. VoluntEARS have begun work on the Generation X Community Garden on the Lower East Side, an urban "backyard," to reestablish it as an environmentally sound gathering place for local residents.
A team of 80 executives, led by Disneyland Resort President Ed Grier, took part in rebuilding Rancho So�ado, an outdoor education facility that was badly damaged during the Santiago fire in Orange County, California.