Stephen Meadows, son of James Meadows of West Second Street, Maysville, and the late Mary Margaret Meadows, has been awarded “Partners in Excellence” at Walt Disney World.

“Partners in Excellence” is a lifetime achievement award and the highest honor a cast member can obtain while working at WDW. It is open to all cast members through the manager level and awarded annually.

Al Weiss, president of Walt Disney World Resort said, “Honoring great service has always been an important part of WDW heritage. ”Partners in Excellence” provides the opportunity to recognize all of our outstanding cast members, on-stage or backstage. The program has a dramatic effect as cast members work together to create a seamless recognition experience, just as they create a seamless guest experience.”

“Partners in Excellence” is based on four criteria: Guest satisfaction, cast excellence, business results and animal and conservation initiatives. The recipients of this award are nominated by fellow cast members and chosen by a committee of past recipients and managers. Their supervisor and four other fellow cast members rate the “Partner in Excellence” nominee on the four items. To be eligible the cast member must have three or four more years of service, no reprimands on his or her record card, no more than three attendance notations and excel in the four areas.

On the guest satisfaction criteria, one of the raters of Stephen said, “He goes out of his way to share his knowledge with guests and goes above and beyond by getting them extra information to help them with their continued magical journey.” For business results, “Stephen always supports the new ideas and initiatives in our area and is active when soliciting feedback. Whenever he brings forth a new idea it is a well thought out comment and one that potentially saves time and resources.” For cast excellence, a fellow cast member said, “Stephen encourages cast members like myself to go for their dreams and congratulates them on each accomplishment.” On animal and conservation initiatives, “Stephen is the epitome of conservation. He is always raising awareness to his management and other cast about way to conserve, recycle and reduce.”

Stephen received his “Partner in Excellence” award in December 2001. Stephen and the other honorees receive a nametag pin and a Walt and Mickey “Partner” statue. A local celebration is held for each park or resort and then a global celebration is observed. Unfortunately, the 2001 “Partner in Excellence” global celebration was postponed due to the events of Sept. 11, 2001. In December 2002, a celebration for the 2001 and 2002 P.I.E. was held at Disney’s Colorado Springs Resort. The formal dinner and celebration was hosted by Al Weiss and included entertainment by Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Snow White, Mary Poppins and several other Disney characters. The highlight of the celebration was the guest speaker, Barbara Walters. Ms. Walters spoke of her distinguished career and recounted some of the many people she has had the honor of interviewing. She told the “Partner in Excellence” honorees that they are all leaders in their work areas and gave incites of the leadership qualities as told to her by the many political, celebrity and social dignitaries from her career.

Stephen has been a Walt Disney World cast member for 12 years and was on the opening training team of Disney’s Animal Kingdom for Restaurantosaurus where he currently works. In 1985, Stephen also won “The Spirit of Disney Award;” the predecessor of P.I.E. Stephen has won four Environmentality Awards and several cast member of the month or cast member of the quarter awards. Stephen has served on many committees as a cast member, both at Epcot and at the Animal Kingdom.

Stephen said, “I feel lucky to work at a place that creates so much magic and brings so much joy to people from all over the world. To win this award is amazing and I feel greatly honored to be a minute part of the legacy of Walt Disney.” Stephen giving a quote from Disney – As Walt Disney once said, “You can dream, create and design the most wonderfully place in the world, but it takes people to make that dream a reality.”