Little girls twirling with Princess Elsa
pre-flight
Children enjoy pre-flight Christmas
story-time with Air Transat elves
Family shares Christmas wishes with Santa
during the flight
Air Transat and Children's Wish hosted their 11th annual Flights in
Search of Santa this week from Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. I was
lucky enough to be onboard the Toronto flight. The task: Fly to the North Pole,
find Santa, bring him back. The event’s true goal: Spreading Christmas cheer to
children diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses along with
their families.
The gate at Toronto Pearson International Airport was alive with
excitement pre-departure. Some much-loved characters including Frozen's Elsa
and Anna and Pirate’s of the Caribbean’s Captain Jack Sparrow, engaged the
children as they were entertained by a variety of activities including a band
playing Christmas carols, a photo booth, a cookie bar, a falcon (yes a real
live falcon), a story time nook and various Christmas elves tasked with keeping
spirits bright (not too difficult a task in such a setting).
Before we took off I had the chance to speak to 7 yr. old Ryan
from Oakville. Ryan is a member of the Children's Wish family and he woke up, like on any other weekday morning, thinking he was going to
school, only to find out over breakfast that he, his sister, his mom and dad
were all getting on a flight to the North Pole in search of Santa Claus
instead. Talk about the best day ever!
The magical flight is in addition to the generous monetary
donations Air Transat gifts Children’s Wish. In fact, every aspect of the
flight was a donation including the volunteered time of every single crew
member from airport check-in attendants to in-flight attendants to the captains
themselves. One former Air Transat employee even came out of retirement to
help out. It was really a beautiful sight to see all of these people so
generously giving their time and to see their faces light up when they succeed
at doing the same for the children.
Much
to the children's joy our mission was a success! We found Santa
and were even able to bring him on board so he could share gifts and speak to
each and every child on the flight. It
was a day filled with a very special kind of Christmas joy for a very special
group of children and their families and I’m very grateful to have been there
to witness it too.
