Kissimmee hotel to be transformed into Toys R Us for children with cancer

Shopping spree comes during trip to Walt Disney World

KISSIMMEE, Fla. – For one day only, a Kissimmee hotel will be made over into a Toys R Us so a group of children battling cancer can go on a shopping spree.

The event will be put on by the Ohr Meir Foundation with the help of former Toys R Us employees and other major toy companies.

In years past, the annual celebration was held at the Mall at Millennia branch of Toys R Us, but after that store closed along with hundreds of others across the nation as part of the retailer's bankruptcy, officials with the Ohr Meir Foundation had to get creative.

“Those Toys R Us staff and the toy store experience were part of this dream-making magic, part of this energy. They had these kids, some in-between chemo treatments, literally dancing in the aisles. How to reproduce that? We can’t exactly take our sick kids to Amazon.com,” Ohr Meir Foundation spokesman Steven Friedman said. “The toy store experience is vital to their memories, to give these kids their childhood back.”

Using gondola shelving and furniture, 18 former employees of the Mall at Millennia Toys R Us will transform the Park Inn Hotel to the "Magical Toy Store." A group of 20 children and young adults from the U.S. and Canada will visit the store for a shopping spree Tuesday as part of a four-day trip to Orlando and Walt Disney World, which is also organized by the Ohr Meir Foundation.

Click here to read more about the Ohr Meir Foundation.


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