The Making of Olaf on a Stick By TMSM Teen Perspective Writer Gabby Adani
If you’ve ever been to Frozen Summer Fun you know about the Olaf’s on a stick. I was lucky enough to go to where they are made! This place is top secret. It’s so top secret that the name of the company isn’t even on the building. I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to go inside. I was only able to photograph certain things and I was not able to photograph any of the great employees that I met.
The process is so cool! One of the coolest parts about it is that they are all handmade! The only process that’s done on a machine is the printing.
The first part of the process is taking the perforated Olaf’s out of their stacks. This is called stripping. There are 8 Olaf’s on a page. That stack above is all Olafs! I got to do some of this and let me tell you, it’s a lot of work! The guy who showed me how to strip them was taking these giant stacks at a time while I was taking off more than half of his stack!
After the Olafs are stripped, they are stacked into piles to be handed off to the gluers.
Now that they are stacked, the gluers get them. Gluing is a three man job: one person puts the hot glue on the Olafs while the other two people put the sticks on them. I was able to put the sticks on the Olafs. It’s very repetitive and you have to be quick. It is also very detail oriented and are inspected to ensure all sticks are put on straight and meet Disney standards.
Once they are glued on, they are boxed and weighed. They weigh the Olafs to determine how many are in each box.
Once they are all boxed up, they are ready to be shipped! They try to make a minimum of 20 boxes an hour. Some fun facts that I learned are: approximately 20,000 Olafs are given out at Disney each day. That’s a lot! They also only had a week before the event to start making these Olafs.
I also learned that they make Cinderella’s Royal Table photo holders! How cool is that?! The foil that is on it has its own separate process. It goes through a machine that puts the foil on. It’s almost like a giant stamp that puts on foil. They are also hand folded. It’s pretty awesome!
I got to tour the building and see where everything is made from school text books, to restaurant menus, to hospital folders, and so much more. It makes you appreciate these things a little bit more. So, if you get a chance to go to Frozen Summer Fun and get an Olaf on a stick, think about the fact that it was completely handmade and touched by several hands with care. And it’s pretty cool to think the ones that I got to touch will be in the hands of a very happy child!
About TMSM’s Teen Perspective Writer Gabby Adani:
”Hi Mainstreeters! I’m Gabby and I’m going to be writing about Disney from a teen’s perspective. But first let me tell you a little bit about myself. I’m 13 years old and have had Disney Annual Passes my whole life. Disney is literally my second home. I’m an honors student and enjoy school. My favorite sport is volleyball. I play for both my middle school team and the YMCA. I am also a huge fan of Star Wars.”
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