Several years ago, I was invited to give a conference talk I had been giving on the tech conf circuit at an internal conference for Disney World IT. I said I would be happy to as long as they were cool with me bringing my daughter, which is how I managed talks as a single mother.

Not only were were the Disney folks organzing the conf cool with it, they went above and beyond. They sent me two park passes so we could visit the Magic Kingdom the day before my talk. It was the first time we had been to Disney World because before that I couldn't afford it.

At the Magic Kingdom, I bought my daughter a Mickey Mouse plush, which she proudly carried around for the rest of the trip. The next day I gave my talk and then that evening we had the speakers' dinner on the second floor of the American Pavilion at Epcot.

During dinner, a Cast Member gave my daughter a bag from the gift shop, with a mysterious air. He reported someone had asked him to give it to her but he didn't know who it was from. In the bag was a Minnie plush matching her Mickey and a note handwritten in "Disney" handwriting.

The note had my daughter's name and it said: "Thanks for letting your mom come help us out. Please take Minnie home with us. Love, Mickey."

It was a small, super sweet thing to do that I've never forgotten. The fact that they went to that trouble to make us happy and welcome, especially when I was perpetually apologetic about having to bring my kid with me to do things for my career, was wonderful.

After that, I looked into it and managed to take us back to Disney World on a budget. As I gained financial ground, we were able to keep going back. My daughter is now almost 16 and it's one of our family traditions. She still has her Mickey and Minnie plushes. I kept the note.

There's a lot of folks at Disney World who work hard to make it a place where people are appreciated and included and it seems that if you can't get behind evolving and expanding that to make sure everyone is appreciated and included then maybe you're missing something important.

Anyway, I hope that was nicer to read than another dunking.