On October 30th, the Children’s Hospital of Orange County along with the Disneyland Resort presented the CHOC Walk in the Park. Now it in its 26th year, the first CHOC Walk originally stretched over five miles starting in the Anaheim Main Place Mall, passing the hospital itself, and ending in the parking lot of Disneyland before moving to the South Coast Plaza in Santa Ana until it outgrew that area and was moved to the Disneyland Resort in 2002.
The Children’s Hospital of Orange County, or CHOC and many Southern California residents know it as, started in 1964 as one of the premier hospitals providing the highest quality medical care to children.
CHOC also offers many primary and specialty care clinics, more than 100 additional programs and services, a pediatric residency program, and four centers of excellence – The CHOC Children’s Heart, Neuroscience, Orthopaedic and Hyundai Cancer Institutes.
The CHOC Walk in the Park event actually started the evening before on the Adventure Lawn of the Disneyland Hotel with the beautiful CHOC Walk Ambassador’s Luau with master of ceremony, KTLA’s Henry DiCarlo. This amazing event was a perfect evening with silent auction, Hula lessons, a chance to meet some of the characters, and great food. Plus all of the proceeds went to CHOC. One of the highlights of the evening was the Polynesian entertainment with special appearances by Tupua Productions.
If the fire dancing and Polynesian entertainment were not enough, we also has a live art demonstration and auction from Disney artist Jimmy Mulligan who along raised over $4,000 dollars for CHOC from his two pieces of art he created live.
After the luau we were all instructed to get a good nights rest because bright (even though there was no sun) and early the next morning was the actual CHOC Walk in the Park.
Starting on Main Street USA and winding throughout Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure before ending at Downtown Disney, this 5K walk attracted 14,000 participants that helped rase over three million dollars all to help CHOC. The event started with Disneyland Resort Ambassadors welcoming us to the Walk in the Park with a little help from some not so scary friends before we all took a early morning stroll.
The course, while not a runDisney event, still had its share of photo ops making this event a must do for any character fan as well as all going to a great cause!
The finish was along Downtown Disney and we were cheered on by the Disneyland Resort Ambassador team again before being let loose into an expo put on by many of the sponsors of the Walk featuring lots of great entertainment and opportunities for prizes and swag.
Click HERE for more information about this event and keep an eye out for next years or if you just want to donate to this amazing hospital click HERE!