SWEETWATER, FLA. (WSVN) – Several South Florida families got to take a trip they thought would never happen.<\/p>\n
The families of 64 children fighting life-threatening illnesses boarded buses in Sweetwater bound for \u201cThe Happiest Place on Earth\u201d on Friday.<\/p>\n
Among those heading to Disney World is Bea Rodriguez and her mother, Suzy Casanueva.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing. Everything was done for us; we can enjoy it and not just the craziness of this life,\u201d said Casanueva.<\/p>\n
Bea isn\u2019t the only one experiencing the joys of Disney World for the first time.<\/p>\n
Leonardo Tinoco, or Leo, is also making his first trip to the parks with his family.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is going to be Leo\u2019s first time going to Disney, so it\u2019s really exciting. I am happy to see how he is going to react because he\u2019s never been there,\u201d said Kimi Paz, Leo\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n
Leo\u2019s parents told 7News that most of his week is normally filled with school responsibilities, followed by therapy and specialist appointments.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe gets speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, so that\u2019s week,\u201d said Saul Tinoco, Leo\u2019s father.<\/p>\n
This trip to visit Mickey Mouse was made possible by the Li\u2019l Abner Foundation and their program, \u201cDisney on Wheels.\u201d<\/p>\n
The program aims to help children with medical needs experience Disney firsthand \u2014 something many of these families aren\u2019t able to do on their own.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are children that really unfortunately have it a little bit tougher than we do. So everything from being quadriplegic to having cancer to having medical tubes on them, feeding tubes, all sorts of different illnesses that they have, and this would be the only way that they can go,\u201d said Raul Rodriguez, the organization\u2019s founder.<\/p>\n
The trip also serves a purpose beyond just enjoying the wonders of Disney. It gives each family a well-deserved chance to press pause on constant visits to doctors, therapist sessions, and hospitals, and instead create unforgettable memories together at the most magical place on earth.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am very happy, and he\u2019s very happy as well,\u201d said Paz. \u201cHaving such a big community that\u2019s able to help us out, it honestly brings me so much happiness, and it honestly makes me want to cry too because it\u2019s so heartwarming.\u201d<\/p>\n
Organizers for the trip said planning to make this all possible takes about a year and hundreds of volunteers.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n
\tJoin our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SWEETWATER, FLA. (WSVN) – Several South Florida families got to take a trip they thought would never happen.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-191642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}