Dreams Really Do Come True
Dalton Bourne and Rose Krol were selected to be in Disney’s Dreamers and Doers program, where they are given the opportunity to raise money for a community organization that they are apart of.
March 6, 2017
“If you can dream it, you can do it,” said Walt Disney, many years ago, hoping to inspire generations to come.
Come to find that many generations later, Disney created a program that allows students to enter into a contest where they write an essay discussing the community service they take part in. Two SJHHS students, junior Dalton Bourne and senior Rose Krol, were among the winners of this year’s “Disneyland Resort’s Dreamers and Doers” program.
All the schools in Orange County can apply for the contest, and once students have submitted their essays, the schools picks their favorite ones and then submits them to Disney.
“I personally chose to talk about my community leadership,” said Rose Krol, one of the winners of the Disney award at SJHHS. Krol wrote three essays and submitted them to the school. The school then picked one of her essays, and another student’s essay as their favorites, and turned them into Disney.
There were many things for Krol to write about when considering her topic for her Disney essay. “I am the president of the National Thespian Society and we are working with a school in Louisiana over the fact that they lost their theater due to flooding,” said Krol. She mentions how the program sends the Louisiana’s theater letters of hope along with anything that they can give to their theater from ours.
After Disney receives all of the nominated essays, they then select 35 of their favorite pieces and gave each of these students Disney tickets. On February 24, the students are going to a symposium and a lunch-in where they get to meet Disney officials.
They are meeting in the Disneyland Hotel Magic Kingdom Ballroom where they are having activities that focus on developing leadership and professional skills.
Disney gives away $1,000 grants to the students who are selected to win the essay contest. With the money, they must use it to help contribute to the project that they are working on to help the community. With her $1,000, Krol is now helping the Louisiana school to rehabilitate their theater.
Another student, Dalton Bourne, wrote an essay and was selected to be one of the 35 students.
“I wrote about my eagle project and how it helped my community,” said Bourne. After he won the contest, he had to decide where he wanted to donate his $1,000.
“Instead of winning scholarship money, I won money that was used to help our school,” said Bourne. He contributed the money to the school to help support funds that make the school better for the student and their education.
This program is intended to push students to want to help the community around them. They can use this as an opportunity to make school and the environment a better place by letting others see them as an example of how being good is what is needed in the world.
