Oprah Winfrey Gives Crockett Students Trip of a Lifetime
August 2005

About 85 first-grade students from Crockett Elementary School visited Disneyland over a three-day weekend in August 2005 thanks to the generosity of well-known talk-show host, Oprah Winfrey. Physical Education teacher Mona Quinney, sent a letter to the famous media mogul as part of her “Wildest Dreams” promotion, in which viewers of her daily talk show wrote in to ask for their “wildest dreams” to be fulfilled.

Quinney asked for Winfrey to send her first-grade students to Disneyland, as “many of them are struggling with adult problems, such as worrying about where their parents are going to get money for things like food and clothing. Disneyland is a place where a kid can be a kid, and I wanted to give these students some pleasant memories that they could look back on when life starts to stress them out.”

In addition to the trip to Disneyland, Winfrey and her film crew surprised the students with a Disney-themed party in the school cafeteria on May 12, 2005 complete with balloons, hats, confetti, and visits from“real-life” cartooncharacters Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy.

Crockett’s entire first-grade class visited Disneyland, including one parent per student, all first-grade teachers, and the school principal. Winfrey footed the bill for the entire trip.