Disney employees give back in day of service event

GLENDALE, Calif. (KABC) -- Over 1,000 employees of the Disney ABC Television Group (DATG) in Los Angeles and New York participated in a day of service Thursday.

Wendy Padua is a 5th grader at Barrett Elementary School in South L.A. and said she enjoyed hearing about the careers of Disney employees who volunteered as part of the program Girls Inc.

"They inspire me, who I am and they help me believe in myself. They say that to be bold, brave and smart," Wendy shared.

The program, Girls Inc., serves 830 young girls in an effort to help them "dream big."

"(We're) talking about careers and aspirations and vision, and it's really great because many of the volunteers here are women, professional women, and very successful women who have an opportunity to talk to the girls about dreaming, dreaming big and what that means," said Rebecca Campbell, president of the ABC Owned Television Group.

Ben Sherwood, president of DATG, said the reason for this day of service is to give back to the community.

"We've got 1,000, 100 people from Disney ABC Television Group serving all across the city and in New York trying to make a difference in our communities," said Sherwood.

ABC7 is a long-time partner of the L.A. Regional Food Back, which hands out 26,000 packages of food in the city each week. One in seven people in L.A. experience hunger.

"These baskets go to senior citizens who really don't have enough money to eat if they're paying for their rent or for their medicine. As you know, it's very expensive to live in Los Angeles, so being able to provide them a month's worth of food really takes the edge off their finances and allows them to live comfortably," said Cheryl Fair, the general manager of KABC-TV.

In total, Disney employees donated their time to 22 different organizations across L.A. including Heal The Bay and Project Angel Food.