Once Upon a Time...

Part Sixteen

Amelia- 26

            That autumn, my parents retired to a beach house in the Bahamas and left me with the entire company, on my own.

            My first day as official owner was just as I had expected it to be: stressful and chaotic. I still had daily appointments with Anastasia and make-up and hair artists, but in addition to that I had to meet with Imagineers and stock holders to discuss the quality of Disney's investments and parks. I also had a lot of boring meetings. I had to sit through them before, but before I didn't have to engage in them like I did as President of the company. Before, I just sat in the back and texted or read. But apparently that's frowned upon as owner, since I guess that title gives me more responsibility and authority, and if I'm listening to music people get the impression that I'm not paying attention. Which, even if I don't like to admit it, is true. I was trying my hardest to tune out whatever they were informing me about.

            I actually did make an effort one day, when I had a meeting with the head of the Make a Wish Foundation. The man off-handedly mentioned a proposal they had pitched to my parents the previous year and had been turned down.

            "But that's a great idea!" I shot out of my seat. "That's not even a fraction of what the Salvation Army asks us to donate. I don't see how they could have turned down that idea."

            The man's mouth fell open. "Thank you—I completely agree. It would be great for Disney's PR, while they're helping families at the same time."

            I nodded and in ten minutes, all of the paperwork was signed and the Make a Wish Foundation was suddenly a lot better off than they were before its President had walked into my conference room. Helping his organization out made me feel a lot better than I had in a while, and that was when I decided that I wanted to make a difference. After all, if I had this much power, shouldn't I be taking advantage of as much as I can?

            After that I started being more involved in local drives and fundraisers around Orlando. My outreach program, called "Disney Cares," grew more and more. Before I knew it, I was getting invitations to festivals around the country to speak to people or to donate and volunteer. It was the greatest experience of my life; I could finally freely travel to wherever I wanted. Some of my colleagues and I got one of the Disney Cruise buses and painted all over it, covering the sailor symbols with our logo, a D with breast cancer awareness ribbons and hearts and stars hanging off its loops. We drove the bus around, stopping whenever we saw something worth visiting. They were always events for a good cause. Everywhere we stopped, we would leave our trademark flier to the organizer of each event. They would take it and hang it in their store or office window so everyone knew that it was approved by Disney.

            Eventually the news got ahold of my story, and pretty soon photographers and reporters were trailing our bus around from state to state to see where we were heading next. Every night we stopped at a small motel or a bed and breakfast, and I checked the newspaper and watched part of the evening news. Not a night went by that my face wasn't plastered across the front of a magazine or my group's bus wasn't the lead story of the nightly news report.

            Word had definitely gotten out, even to the Caribbean or wherever my parents were currently living. One night I got a call from my mother.

            "Hello, Amelia," she said briskly.

            "Hi, mother," I replied distractedly. I was busy planning out our route for the next day, so we could get to Boulder by noon and Denver by six in the same day.