On Friday, Bret and I reported to volunteer at Give Kids the World. We were assigned Castle duty. This meant that we got to help with the star fairy, the pillow tree, and Woody and Winne Woodpecker.

Each child is given a star that they can make a wish on. The "star fairy" comes and gets the star and puts it on the ceiling. Every child since 1994 has had a star representing them. The "star fairy" comes at night (because she is very shy) and places the child's star on the ceiling. Each star is tracked and can be located at any time for the family.

Upon arriving at the Village each of our Wish Children receives a golden star along with an invitation from the Star Fairy to bring the star to our Enchanted Castle of Miracles. Once there the children sit at a mushroom table that appears to have grown right through the Castle floor. They write their name on the star, close their eyes, make one very special wish, and then place the star in the Star Fairy’s wooden chest. With animation, twinkling lights, and pure magic the star disappears from the chest with a promise that the Star Fairy will gather up all of the stars each day, capturing all of the treasured memories the children have made, and place them in the Castle sky that night.

The next day the children, along with their families, rush to the castle to locate their star, knowing that they now have a permanent place in the Village and our hearts.

The Castle sky is home to tens of thousands of special stars, but available space is dwindling. Because the star program has proven to be an incredibly powerful and moving experience for our families, we will soon need to provide additional space for stars. With your help we can add a Star Tower, a breathtaking addition to the Castle of Miracles that will allow us to continue this heartwarming tradition for the next twenty years.

Each child also gets to make a pillow using the pillow tree. The pillow tree was created by students from Cornell. The village has 6,000 less pillows than last year and is in dire need of these. They don't actually need the pillow form - just the pillowcase. They like to have bright vivid materials used and need both boy and girl pillows.

Universal Studios, Sea World, Disney all send characters to the village to give the children and their family an opportunity to have their picture taken with the character.