Imaginary Continental Flight Takes Kids To Visit North Pole
If there's anything we've learned from House MD—other than that everyone at every level is incompetent, which we already knew because we deal with travel companies—it's that children's cancer wards are the saddest places in the universe. Without dwelling on the obvious, you've got a bunch of kids trying to cope with a horrible disease while putting on a brave face for themselves and their parents. There's not much bright in their lives, so it's always laudable when someone tries to life those shadows even if only for a couple of hours.
That's exactly what Continental, in partnership with the Children's Center for Cancer and Blood Disease at the Florida Hospital Cancer Institute, has been doing for the last thirteen years with an children's imaginary trip to the North Pole. The actual "flight" only lasts 15 minutes and involves a slow ride into Continental's maintenance hanger. But in the children's minds they're traveling to the North Pole to meet Santa, and when they do arrive in his "workshop" they're greeted by elves and reindeer and even two waddling penguins from nearby SeaWorld Orlando. Well played, guys:
The free event, which featured music, cotton candy and Santa visits, aims to lift the spirit of the holidays in the hearts of 250 children and families who face some of life's grimmest realities. They could slide down an inflatable slide, decorate cookies and enjoy the antics of Pete and Penny, a playful pair of penguins... Continental's flight crew, Mike Myers and Diego Alfonso, took on holiday names, Capt. Kris Kringle and First Officer Jack Frost, and flight attendants Shirley Scott, Laura Trentos and Lisa Luiz introduced themselves as Peppermint Shirley, Miss Jingles and Lisa Lollipop while caroling over the in-flight safety instructions.
We were going to do a little bit about how Continental's got a lot of experience taxiing endlessly around a tarmac, but let's just let a nice thing be nice shall we?
[Photo: rowens27 / Flickr]
Related Stories:
· Imaginary Flight 1225 lifts spirits of children with cancer [Orlando Sentinel]
· Continental Coverage [Jaunted]
· Holiday Travel [Jaunted]
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