About
Our History
Early in 1989, a group of Air Canada employees based at the Toronto airport decided to dedicate some of their time and financial resources to the community. The original plan, then called “Dream Come True”, was to charter a bus and take “under-privileged” children to Canada’s Wonderland for the day. The committee decided that this was not ambitious enough and, being employees of the largest airline in Canada, elected to request an aircraft be donated from Air Canada – their dream came true and they were bound for Walt Disney World – the first making of magical moments for 70 special kids onboard a DC-9 aircraft!
Vancouver, Calgary & Edmonton followed in their footsteps in 1993 by organizing a similar flight to Disney Land in California.
A year later, a small group of employees in Halifax decided to give this a try as well…In October, 1994, our dream here in Atlantic Canada also became a reality when we hosted 64 children on our first flight onboard an Airbus A320.
In 1997, Dreams Take Flight began to operate Canada-wide with all participating cities operating under one logo and one name “Dreams Take Flight Canada / Voyage De Reves”; which is now a registered Canadian charity operated in eight cities across Canada – Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal & Halifax.
MOST RECENTLY, our latest Magical Flight took place on Wednesday, April 21st, 2010; our 16th Dreams Take Flight event, departed Halifax on a Boeing 767 aircraft at 0530am with 136 special Atlantic Canadian children on board ….once again, our destination …
DISNEY WORLD in Orlando, Florida!
Children are selected by Dreams Take Flight based on referrals by various community service groups and agencies in Newfoundland & Labrador, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton, as well as mainland Nova Scotia; along with a limited number of requests we receive from individuals.
Air Canada’s community investment program, KIDS’ HORIZONS give each chapter the use of an aircraft for the day. They also offer immeasureable promotional support. Complimentary airline tickets are offered to transport children and their chaperones from all over Atlantic Canada to Halifax to participate in “Dreams Take Flight”. Without the incredible support of Air Canada Kids Horizons, Dreams Take Flight would not exist.
A day in the park…Groups consist of 8 children accompanied by a minimum 4 adult volunteer chaperones – each group of 12 stays together and travels as a unit throughout the park.
We organize fundraising activities and have dedicated sponsors who help to offset some of our expenses, which include: food and drinks for the day, Disney admission tickets, aircraft fuel, landing fees, catering costs, Customs & Immigration fees, T-shirts, hats, sunscreen, bus transportation to/from Park, ground-handling, etc.
All time is given freely on a voluntary basis – Pilots, Flight Attendants, Aircraft Technician, Group Leaders, Corporate Sponsors and chaperones will all be volunteers.
After a fun-filled day at the “Happiest Place on Earth”, our special flight returns to Halifax just after midnight on the same evening.
Our next flight will take place in Spring, 2011 (exact date to be determined).
