Dreams take flight to Disney

It’s been a decade since Lindsay Jacobs first became involved in the Dreams Take Flight initiative, flying deserving children with special needs to Orlando, Florida, for a day at Disney World - but seeing the smiles on faces of participants never gets old.

“It just melts my heart,” Jacobs said. “I just love to be able to give them a day that they’ll remember forever and look back on years down the road.”

At the start of this month, 175 children took part in the annual Dreams Take Flight trip, starting their day in the early hours of the morning on a private flight to Florida. Children came from all over Quebec for the trip, including four children from Kahnawake and four children from Akwesasne, as well as from Wendake.

“We want to just let them be a child for a day,” Jacobs said. “They get to forget about things like school, home life, if there’s anything they struggle with medically or physically, they get to just focus on enjoying the day as much as possible.”

Dreams Take Flight covers the cost of the flight and the trip to Disney World, though nearly $2,000 in extra donations came from community members, as well as $1,500 from Kahnawà:ke Shakotiia’takéhnhas Community Services (KSCS) and $2,500 from the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK).

Much of the funding came from an annual golf tournament held Elm Ridge Country Club, where more than $130,000 was raised for participating youth, but extra donations allow for the experience to be even more special for the youngsters, including a personalized cushion for the flight home, a blanket, and a “Mickey Mouse Campaign” that Jacobs has been organizing for several years.

Thanks to that initiative, youth get to take home a cuddly Mickey toy as a keepsake after their trip, discovering the mascot as a surprise when they return to their seats on the return leg of the journey.

“It just makes everything that little bit more special,” Jacobs said.

While the early morning flight to Orlando is filled with chatter and hubbub, the return flight is typically silent, with the nearly 200 children completely exhausted from the trip of a lifetime. This year was no different, Jacobs said - until the kids got off the plane to mark the end of their journey.

“The kids are like, ‘Can we get back on the plane and go back to Disney? Turn the plane around!” Jacobs said.

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