Smile-Fari 2021

BrightStart helps enjoy wildest parking lot ever!

While we wait for the Nathaniel’s Hope Make ‘m Smile event to return to Lake Eola in 2022, BrightStart spent a little time with the Smile Team at Wild Florida for their second day of Smile-Fari 2021.

The event was arranged in lieu of the usual party downtown to get some sunshine and smiles for families while they enjoyed a tour through the 85 acres of scenic landscape and animals at Wild Florida.

What a way to spend your Saturday! Giraffes, zebras, American Bison … but first, families got to navigate the parking/staging area where members of Nathaniel’s Hope’s Smile Team descended on each vehicle like a professional pit crew. Visitors got checked in, received snacks and water, were fitted for really neat plastic pith helmets and shirts, then rolled on to their exotic destination with cool car magnets.

Between that the VIPs were greeted by a few of the resource providers who sponsored the event, which means more neat things to take home!

Just yell “Dude – Freebird!”
Brief tensions when we confronted these orange shirts, who let us know you can’t own the rights to a color. (We’re gonna Google that.) But they turned out to be the great folks from Central Florida Dreamplex! There were more of them than us, so we got along wonderfully.
These friendly bovine were busy dance-greeting VIP families as they arrived. 

A couple of BrightStart families were spotted, and our trio exhausted our sticker supply.

We’re including a few photos here to show off the incredible planning and organization that the Smile Team maintained at full speed. They are a fun and friendly bunch and we can’t wait to see them again next year!