“Dreams Take Flight” for group of local kids
Posted October 16, 2012 7:55 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – A group of kids flew out of Vancouver at the crack of dawn this morning for a very special, one-day, whirlwind trip to Los Angeles.
Dreams Take Flight, an Air Canada employee charity, is celebrating it’s 20th anniversary in BC today by taking another planeload of children with special needs to Disneyland.
Children selected for the flight are affected by social, physical or medical circumstances and may
never have the opportunity to go to Disneyland. But for one fun-filled, action packed day, they can forget all their troubles and just be kids at the “Happiest Place On Earth.”
“They started arriving here at the Air Canada north hangar at 4:45 this morning and, of course, the adrenalin was buzzing ahead of take off, but once they got on the aircraft — a lot of them have never been on a plane before — they’re way too excited to eat breakfast and they just conk out and get their catnap in before we arrive at Disneyland,” says Melissa Hance, President of the Vancouver Chapter of Dreams Take Flight.
She says a nap’s a good thing given today’s schedule.
“Every child is given a fanny pack with a disposable camera, an autograph book, pen and sunglasses. We touch down in LA at 8:30, five buses take us to Disneyland and we arrive at 10:00. We are in the park for eight short hours where we will also treat the children to a private lunch where, they don’t know yet, but we we have arranged for a visit from the Fab Five — Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto,” Hance explains.
“They ride as many rides as they can in a day — 18 is the record. We surprise the children with 30 Disney Dollars — they can spend it on whatever they choose and then we leave Disneyland at 6:30.”
Then it’s back on the buses to the airport and another chartered flight back to Vancouver.
“They depart LA at about 8:30 and touch down in Vancouver at about 10:45 or 11:00 p.m., and this is the quiet flight,” Hance laughs.
“We serve dinner, but half the time the kids are sleeping. They’re given the utmost treatment — as we board the plane in Los Angeles, Mattel is one of our major US sponsors, and they give every child a gift bag, they’re given a Dreams Take Flight medal for having endured such a day and then on each of their seats, they’ll be greeted by their own Mickey or Minnie plush doll and Dreams Take Flight fleece blanket they can cuddle up to and it is a quiet flight home, which is a success for us.”
Air Canada donates the flights and Chevron provides the fuel. The rest of the funding for the day comes from other sponsors and countless volunteer hours spent fund-raising.
For more information on the program and the fund-raisers, click here.
