Linda Mac's Orlando Adventures

Disney's Animal Kingdom celebrated its 10th Anniversary on April 22, Earth Day. Officially, the event was very low key. If you were lucky and arrived very early you were treated to the opening rededication ceremony in front of the Tree of Life featuring Joe Rohde, Jane Goodall and Erin Wallace.

There were also the usual Earth Day displays throughout the park but other than that, it was business as usual for most guests.

There was one exception, Joe Rohde, senior vice president and executive designer of Walt Disney Imagineering and, in my opinion, the face of Disney's Animal Kingdom, had two more public appearances.

After the rededication of Animal Kingdom, Joe spoke to cast members, annual passholders and other invited guests at the Theater in the Wild. His presentation went way too fast as he shared some of the process that went into the creation of Animal Kingdom.

In the afternoon, Joe was available at a meet and greet autograph session which was open to all guests at 1 pm.

After Animal Kingdom's park events, the rest of the day was spent enjoying A Wild Decade!

"A Wild Decade" was put together by Adam Roth and his exceptional group from WDW Celebrations.

AllEars.Net was a proud sponsor of this terrific event. Folks who registered to participate in "A Wild Decade" spent the day by attending a presentation of Finding Nemo The Musical, riding Expedition Everest, and shared a meal at the Flame Tree Barbecue.

In addition, a "History Walk" outlining the timeline and evolution of the Animal Kingdom theme park was led by several of the meet organizers. At the end of the day, the Wild Decade organizers presented a $500 check to author Lou Mongello (The Walt Disney World Trivia Book) to go to the Dream Team charity he has established, which benefits terminally ill children through the Make-A-Wish Foundation.