Click the logo to visit the Miles of Smiles website
Miles of Smiles
The 'Miles of Smiles' appeal was originated in 1991 by Tecwyn Williams, a Chester Chronicle employee. After much success raising money for various causes, he decided that money should be raised to fund dream holidays for local sick, disabled and under privileged children. His wife Linda came up with the apt name, Miles of Smiles and the rest, as they say, is history.
After 5 years hard work, Tecwyn moved on to other charitable fundraising work but his legacy lives on. In the last 14 years over £600,000 has been raised in the Chester, Ellesmere Port and North Wales areas, and has allowed us to send local children and their carers to the magical world of Disneyland Paris plus another trip to visit Santa in Lapland.
The average trip takes 25 children plus carers and the average cost of the trips are approx. £35,000. This money pays for coaches from pickup points, flights from Manchester Airport to Charles de Gaulle Airport, then coaches on to Disneyland. The children stay in a 5 star hotel for three nights, and everyone has passes and special badges which prevents queuing. The trip ends on the fourth day with a sight seeing trip around the famous sights of Paris.
Miles of Smiles (blue boat) just beating Deeside Dragons into second place in round 1 of the 2009 Chester Festival.
We know from all the feedback that we receive that the trips are something these children benefit from greatly and remember forever. We are very proud of the work we do, but it is entirely due to the generosity of individuals, groups, associations and businesses that year after year do all sorts of weird and wonderful things to raise funds for the appeal. Everyone involved in the Appeal works entirely on a voluntary basis so every penny donated or raised goes directly towards the next Disneyland Paris Trip.
