Give Kids The World celebrates 40 years of inspiring hope

This year, the foundation celebrates its 40th anniversary of providing cost-free week-long vacations to children with critical illnesses and their families in what feels like the “happiest place on earth,” regardless of another bastion of theme park fun laying claim to that phrase.

Just as accurate, and perhaps more so, is Give Kids The World’s own motto, “Where Happiness Inspires Hope.”

Give Kids the World History

It’s all because Henri knew what it felt like to lose his childhood to circumstances beyond his control. When World War II ended and he had survived, he came to the United States with just twenty dollars in his pocket and gritty determination as his driving force.

Settling in Cocoa Beach, Florida, Landwirth worked his way up in the hospitality business, earning success as a hotelier and the lifelong friendship from of the Mercury Seven astronauts, who were frequent visitors to the Starlite Lounge at the Starlite Motel, one of the properties he managed.

In 1986, Henri began providing complimentary rooms to families whose “Wish” it was to bring their child with life-threatening illness to Orlando. Six-year-old Amy was one of those children, but the time it took to arrange all the details of her visit proved too long, and she passed without having her Wish granted.

Landwirth was determined that would never happen to another child, and the concept of Give Kids The World Village was born.

In 1989, the whimsical 15-acre Village opened, with a fairytale theme throughout its 16 condominium-style villas.  A year later, the Gingerbread House restaurant opened. Today, the Village is a 166-villa fantasy wonderland.

40 Years of Yes

On March 7, 2026, – what would have been Henri’s 99th birthday – Give Kids The World celebrated Founders Day and its 40th year of fulfilling wishes. The Village has expanded to 89 acres filled with attractions children love, including a games arcade, mini-golf, zero-entry pool and splash area, movie theater, spa, rides, kid-friendly dining, parties, characters, pony rides, and the all-important Henri’s Starlite Scoops ice cream parlor, plus the delights of a cookie cart that roams the Village each evening handing out cookies and drinks.

And that’s all before the addition of theme park tickets to Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando, and SeaWorld, plus several others families can request after check-in. Legoland? Yes! Gatorland? Yes! Busch Gardens, Medieval Times Dinner Theater, and Peppa Pig Theme Park? Yes, yes, and yes again!

Because, just like all the positive answers Henri received as donors and sponsors lined up to support his vision to the tune of millions of dollars, each family’s visit to Give Kids The World Village is a week of Yes.

There is also a chapel onsite, but the spiritual heart of the Village is the Castle of Miracles, a medieval-style edifice whose interior is adorned with more than 200,000 golden stars, each decorated by a child whose Wish came true. It’s an emotional experience that includes a ceremony during which Stellar the Star Fairy takes the child’s star, then hangs it up in the Castle of Miracles, where it will stay forever. As Alumni, kids and their families can come back and visit their star.

On Founder’s Day 2026, Landwirth received his own star. Surrounded by a shield that represents Henri’s protection of the Village and its mission, and topped with a heart that symbolizes his love for the children and families who visit, his star is a reminder of the light Henri brought to the world.

It was hung in the Castle by two former Wish children, now grown up, and it joins a brand-new eight-minute animated movie,  What Henri Gave The World, telling Landwirth’s story, from its happy beginning through its darkest days – sensitively told in a way young children can absorb – right up to the magical place he founded that brings happiness and hope to so many.

And it is a joyful place.

Children whose weeks, months, or years have been filled with hospital beds, treatments, medical appointments, and restrictions now run down the Avenue to the ice cream parlor or to meet a roaming character, and all of the “No, you can’t…” is put behind them.

Youngsters in wheelchairs or medical strollers laugh with delight on rides that accommodate their needs, often for the first time.

Kids get to celebrate Halloween, birthdays, and wintertime holidays each week. Disney and Universal characters arrive to spend time with them, free from the bustle of the theme parks.

A large part of what makes the Village run smoothly is its volunteers –dubbed “Angels on Earth” by Henri – who fill up to 1,800 shifts each week, from welcoming families to the Village and doing their villa tour and arrival orientation, to serving food or ice cream.

There are even shifts at Orlando International Airport and Orlando Sanford Airport, during which volunteers greet families as they arrive, helping them with luggage and car rental, and sending them off for a week of magical memory-making.

Just want to power-wash the pavement, drive a shuttle or the transportation train, or sponsor a Christmas tree and decorate it for the holidays? Those shifts are available, too.  

Ask a volunteer why they do it and you’ll get the almost invariable replies of, “We absolutely love it,” “It’s addictive,” “We get as much out of it as our families do,” and “We get paid in hugs!”

For forty years, Give Kids The World Village has been a place of joy and rejuvenation, and in 2026 the foundation celebrates Henri’s legacy of love and light. Those who join in, whether it be through donations or volunteering their time, truly understand the quote attributed to Winston Churchill and painted on the wall of the GKTW office at Orlando International Airport:

“We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.”