Beverly Shores Elementary students La’Aisa Taylor, left, Ulaylia Anderson, Keyondra Anderson, Adriana Hall and Andramada Ronci try on “Frozen” costumes on Tuesday.

ORLANDO, FLA., — Dressed as Anna from the Disney movie “Frozen,” 9-year-old La’Aisa Taylor couldn’t wipe the smile off her face.

“It made me feel beautiful like a princess,” said the third-grader at Beverly Shores Elementary School in Leesburg.

She and thousands of other Central Florida schoolchildren received costumes from the Oscar-winning 2013 movie as part of an enormous Disney donation. Disney needed extra space in its warehouses for a new cycle of stock and delivered the dresses to Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Polk schools.

New and in the bag, the costumes are being distributed to students this month as incentives for literacy and good behavior, as well as for character parades and movie nights.

“For us, it’s an opportunity to use these items that are being discontinued, and to find wonderful homes,” said Betty Martinez Lowery, Disney’s manager of corporate citizenship. “Our goal is to make sure nothing goes to waste, it doesn’t go to landfills and it ends up in the hands of children and families in the five-county Central Florida region.”

In past years, Disney has donated plenty of other items to local schools and nonprofits including music stands and welding equipment.

Neither the total tally of dresses nor the overall dollar value of the donation was released. But the number is staggering, judging from details of Polk’s shipment.

The Lake County Educational Foundation, a nonprofit organization that serves the district, put its shipment’s value at $817,000. Osceola said the costumes are worth $64.95 each.

Source: The Orlando Sentinel