Skip to main content

Restoring Stolen Childhoods: Giving Kids the World

Share This article

CELEBRATION, Fla. -- There's nothing more stressful for a family than caring for a child with a terminal illness. But a special vacation spot in Florida gives sick children and their families a much needed respite during tough times.

Give Kids the World Village is a storybook resort in Celebration, Florida, not far from Disney's Magic Kingdom in Orlando. Its goal is to create magical moments for those in need of hope.

The families that come to Give Kids the World Village share a common bond. Each has a child between the ages of 3 and 18 who has a life-threatening illness.

The village is designed through the eyes of a child and makes young dreams come true. Ice cream is served from morning until night. And the village celebrates Christmas every week of the year, complete with snow, Santa Claus and gifts.

Give Kids the World Village is a whimsical world full of vibrant colors and sounds that seem to create happiness and inspire hope.

"We work with 250 grant-wishing organizations around the world," Public Relations Manager Mark Hoewing told us. "So if a child wants to come to Orlando and their wish is granted by a wish-granting organization, then they call us, and they come here for their vacation."

Pan Landwirth is the president and CEO of Give Kids the World Village.

"You can just see they're so tired of the battle and poked and prodded," Landwirth said. "What we want to do is give them a whole week where the answer to everything is yes. You want ice cream all the time? You want more pancakes? You want a party every night? And it's just to generate that happiness to go back and renew their battle."

The village was founded by Henri Landwirth, a man who knows what it's like to be a child with stolen dreams. As a boy, he spent five years in Nazi concentration camps, where his parents were killed. Landwirth escaped, but his childhood had vanished.

He is now 87 years old, and has dedicated his life to restoring stolen childhoods.

"In many cases I see myself in these children's faces because when I was 13 I was taken to Auschwitz, which was one of the worst camps you could be in. I had no idea if I would be living," Landwirth said. "I felt I needed to do something."

The village has helped more than 130,000 families from 72 different countries. Volunteers work year round in the village. They come from churches, corporations and special events, like Hearts of Reality, a weekend when television reality show stars came to help the kids have a little fun.

Stars from ABC’s "The Bachelor/Bachelorette," "The Amazing Race," "Survivor," "Big Brother" and "Ready for Love" attended the 2014 event. Juan Pablo Galavis and Nikki Ferrell from "The Bachelor" loved being at the village for a day, helping to raise money to make it a reality for families year round.

"Seeing those little kids smile and being a pirate for them -- it's been fun," Galavis said.

Diem Brown, a reality show personality and host, said she's battled ovarian cancer herself.

"But thinking about having a disease or illness so restricting and you're a kid -- it's so different," she said. "Having something like Give Kids the World, it's allowing them not to think of their illness for a second and allows them to think of being a kid, brother, mother and father, and a family rather than just an illness."

Many families return to help spread the same hope and love that changed their lives. The Loehman family visited in 2009 with 3-year-old son Noah.

"Noah was diagnosed before he was born with a genetic disorder. We were given the option to terminate at that point, which we didn't, thank goodness," Noah's father explained.

After Noah passed away, the family moved from their home in Canada to work at the village.

"From having Noah and being blessed by him and the joy he brought to our lives, although we miss him dearly and we're sad not to have him in our family any longer, the joy of encouraging other families during those tough times is something we wanted to share," he said. "What better way than to come to the place where we felt that from volunteers and other families?"

Give Kids the World Village is still expanding, fulfilling its mission to bring love, laughter and healing to children and their families.

Image removed.

CBN Reporter Angela Zatopek with Loewman Family in Celebration, Florida.

Share This article

About The Author

CBN News Reporter Angela Zatopek
Angela
Zatopek

Angela Zatopek is currently a reporter, covering a range of topics geared toward today's younger generation. Angela graduated with Honors from the University of Texas at Austin with a major in Corporate Communications and a minor in Journalism. With a diverse background in television, she has worked with Fox and CBS College Sports as a sideline reporter for the University of Texas. She also appeared in Miss Texas USA and was the winner of Eva Longoria and NBC's Ready for Love. She currently also has a faith-based jewelry line called OneLove Collection. The heartbeat of the jewelry line is to