A Christmas (Party) Story…

I recently went to my Aunt’s annual Christmas party, that I’ve gone to for many years. This year, I got there a little late and most of the other party guests were already there, visiting and catching up, sharing stories from the past year, as most of these people are friends of my Aunt and Uncle and don’t usually see each other outside of this party. As I entered, I saw several of their friends gathered together where one friend, Daren, was telling a story. He saw me come in and immediately halted the discussion.

I’ve known Daren for 25+ years, as he’s a life-long friend of my Uncle. We’ve gotten together socially outside of the Christmas party, and he’s even helped a little with MouseMingle in the past, so he knows plenty about the site. He said he had to share this story with the group…

Daren told us that the previous week he had gone to his family’s annual Christmas party, and that evening, saw his autistic cousin around the house with a woman he didn’t know. He asked his aunt who the woman was, and she said it was his girlfriend. Daren had known his cousin for many years, and didn’t expect that his cousin would find someone, due to his disorder. He asked his aunt for more details, and she said they had met on a dating site for Disney fans. Daren’s ears instantly perked up, and he enthusiastically asked, “Was it MouseMingle.com?” His aunt said she didn’t know, so Daren urgently went through the house track down his cousin.

Sure enough, his cousin confirmed that they had met on MouseMingle. Daren told his cousin that he and I were friends, and the cousin excitedly asked, “So you know Dave Tavres?” Daren was initially surprised that his cousin knew my name, then found out that he had read about me launching the site.

Of course I love all things Disney, and I love people, and I love that people are making special connections through MouseMingle… but I don’t often hear about those connections… although I’d love to hear from more people. But, when people in my ‘close-outer circle’ end up having personal connections to the site – without being told, it’s pretty amazing to me. It made my night, and it once again reaffirmed that MouseMingle.com is a good thing that can help people with all kinds of backgrounds and experiences find their Mickey or Minnie. And, as we all know… “it’s a small world” after all.

Founder, MouseMingle