REMEMBER ALL PROFITS FROM SALES GOES TO MILES OF SMILES
Miles of Smiles
( Chester) Ltd
Registered Charity No. 1049386
MILES OF SMILES FACT FILE.
The Miles of Smiles Appeal was launched in 1992 to enable youngsters with various disabilities to experience a Holiday of a Lifetime.
Some 19 years later the Charity is still going strong and though many faces have changed the emphasis is still to raise money in the Flintshire, Chester, and Ellesmere Port areas to enable unfortunate children to be part of something that they will hopefully remember for ever.
Each year individuals, organisations and businesses do all sorts of weird and wonderful things to help raise the approximately £40,000 needed to fund the annual pilgrimage to the fun capital of Europe, Disneyland Paris.
Experience has taught us that the format we use is a winner, and we know from the cards, letters and phone calls we receive that these trips are often life changing for the families involved. Some of the children have never even been on a coach let alone an aeroplane.
We ask people in the locality to nominate a child who they feel would benefit from such a break. As long as the Miles of Smilescommittee agree on the nomination and the child’s doctor says they are ok to travel we contact the parent/parents and offer them a place on the trip. We also offer one of the parents the chance to accompany the child on the four day all expenses paid holiday. It also gives the parent some important quality time with their child.
That is basically how it all works:-
A party of 42, which is 19 Children, 19 parents or carers, a local G.P., and 3 Miles of Smilescommittee members, who act as co-ordinators to make sure that everything runs smoothly, will make up this trip.
Everyone will stop at the art deco New York Hotel in the heart of the Disney Village. Each child and parent or carer are issued with special badges and passes which allow them to go to the front of all the huge queues for the various theme park attractions and restaurants etc. The passes even allow them to get to the front of the queues for the character autographs.
Our trip co-ordinator ensures that everything runs like clock work, and months of meticulous planning and effort ensures that everyone making the trip have a care free time from start to finish.
We are very proud of the work that we do, which is all voluntary, and the Charity has become very well known and well respected. People support Miles of Smilesbecause they know that it makes a real difference to the lives of the local families involved.
Brian Peers,
Trustee,
For Miles of Smiles.