Disney

SOUTH OGDEN -- Life hasn't always been easy for 16-year-old Emily Burns, but she has learned how to take her struggles and turn them into strengths. Next week she will be rewarded for that hard work with a three-day trip to Disney World as a member of Disney's Dreamers Academy.

CELEBRATION, Fla. -- At first blush, Tuesday was a typical November day in the town that Disney built.

Children skated on fake ice in the middle of downtown. A worker sprayed a layer of soap designed to look like snow on Market Street as "Happy Holiday" by Irving Berlin played on loudspeakers. Tourists shopped and admired the towering Christmas tree at the lake. Locals strolled or relaxed in rocking chairs at the lakefront, enjoying the postcard-perfect Florida weather.

A block away, however, crime-scene tape surrounded a condominium where the first homicide in Celebration history injected a dose of grim reality into this fantasyland of large homes, pristine landscaping and candy-colored office buildings.

"Everyone calls it 'the bubble' here," said Katie Sobczewski, 23. "You don't want people to pop your bubble."

Sometime over the Thanksgiving weekend, however, somebody killed Massachusetts native and former teacher Matteo Patrick Giovanditto, 58, in his condo here, the Osceola County Sheriff's Office said. The killing was an isolated incident and the public has nothing to fear, investigators say.