Good News: Bloggers Sarah, Tom Bricker raise over $40,000 for former Disney employees

Disney bloggers Sarah and Tom Bricker raised over $40,000 for their local food bank by starting a virtual fundraiser drive. Disney on September 29 announced that it would lay off 28,000 employees in its California-based theme park division in the United States due to the prolonged impact of COVID-19. While speaking to The New York Times (NYT), Chairman of Disney Parks Josh D'Amaro said that this decision seemed the only feasible option. 

A new target set 

The fundraiser is for the Second Harvest Food Bank in Central Florida. According to the disneytouristblog.com, the Second Harvest Food Bank is a non-profit that collects, stores, and distributes millions of meals per year to relieve hunger in the local community. The website states, “Second Harvest is an efficient and large-scale 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization with a Four Star Charity rating (the highest score) on Charity Navigator. They are also supported directly by Walt Disney World”.

Read: Disney To Lay Off Over 28,000 Employees As COVID-19 Hits Its Theme Park Business

As per the website, the Brickers donated $500 for the cause and in order to “match” the first donations by readers. The couple said that they are confident that people will definitely help them reach their target. Recently, the website posted an update saying that the original goal has been accomplished and also they are setting a new goal of  $30,000. The website said, “Your donations thus far will fund 90,000 meals for those in need. With the scale of these layoffs and the unemployment numbers in Central Florida, even more help is still urgently needed in our community”.

Read: At Least A Quarter Of Disney Layoffs Coming From Florida

In the theme parks of California and Florida, Disney had employed over 110,000 employees before the pandemic. Now, after the newly announced job cuts, the entertainment giant will not have around 82,000 employees. Due to the state's unwillingness to lift restrictions that would allow Disneyland to reopen, the layoffs were aggravated in California, D'Amaro said in a statement. 

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