This year, the Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) Walk in the Park was in full effect. With over $2 million dollars raised, it was a huge turnout. 16,000 people participated in the 5K walk through the Disneyland Resort. This is not the first CHOC Walk in the Park at the resort. The strong partnership reaches way back to Walt Disney himself.
Officially, the CHOC Walk in the Park started in 1990. Throughout all the years, this fundraising event has raised over $22 million. Back in the 1960s, Walt Disney advocated for a hospital in Orange County that would help children. Since then, the Walt Disney Company and the Disneyland Resort has had a large impact at CHOC. Back in 2012, the resort donated $5 million to help redesign and construct the second floor lobby, which is “Finding Nemo” themed.
With this in mind, it was the perfect place in 1990 to hold the event. Originally, the parking lot of Disneyland was used in the walk. It was not until 2002 that the entire resort including, Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park, were placed on the route. With this added in, the amount of walkers has only increased throughout the years.
As for next year, CHOC Walk in the Park will be celebrating its 25th Anniversary. In addition, Disneyland will be having their 60th Anniversary Diamond Celebration. CHOC Director of special events, Zach Abrams said, “We actually started working on the 2015 CHOC Walk a year ago. We’ve already started designing our 25th anniversary logos and have begun looking for a new CHOC Walk ambassador. We’re also looking at ways we can recognize our patients and their families as well as our teams and their walkers, some of which have participated for all 25 years of this event.” It will be a very exciting event next year so be sure to sign up as soon as possible. You won’t want to miss it!
If you would like more information about CHOC, please click here.
Did you participate in the 2014 CHOC Walk in the Park? If so, what was your favorite part?
