This was just a small fraction of the children who turned up with their toys in hand for a chance to swim with the Dolphins at the Prospect Reef location. Photo: Provided

This little girl was very excited about the activities of the day; especially about swimming with the Dolphins, but she was also prepared to share a smile with another child somewhere with her donated toy. Photo: Provided

Printing the palm of their hands, inscribing their names and writing little sweet messages on a memory wall, all formed part of the day's fun filled activities. Photo: Provided

At the end of the day, 250 children from Nature's Little Secrets in the Virgin Islands turned out to share a smile and get one in return. Photo: Provided

On Sunday April 28, 2013 the management and staff hosted 250 children from all corners of the Virgin Islands in the quest of joining the other locations to share 10,000 smiles among children. According to Swim with the Dolphin Tortola, Virgin Islands Manager Carlos Guerrero the concept was to have children bring a toy and in return get a chance to swim for free with the dolphins. “Today we celebrate Children's Day all over the place so to do that, what we do is to share 10,000 smiles. It was an ambitious project of our director and the idea around that was to have four to five thousand kids swimming around the place with the dolphins and then give away five thousand toys.” said Mr Guerrero.

In other words it was an exchange programme, bring a toy and get to swim with the dolphins for free. This was something that the management locally had calculated to have about one hundred children registered and turning up but they had a pleasant surprise as approximately 250 children turned up and some with more than one toy to ensure that their contributions to another child’s smile went a long way.

According to Guerrero they have already identified a number of organizations to share the toys with. They include the Rainbow Children's Home and The Red Cross among others. “We know that we do not have too many reservations but the idea was to have them registered so that we can plan ahead so we would know how many persons to expect and we were expecting one hundred and we end up with two hundred and fifty.”

Guerrero said that the turn out went way above their expectations but he was happy that they were able to see each child that turned up walk away with a smile. He said that for such a small island it was remarkable as the figures were on par, and above some of the larger islands based on reports that were gathered up to Sunday afternoon. “We were very pleased, kids were very pleased and people were having a blast.”

The promotion of sharing 10,000 smiles coincided with the observance of stopping child abuse and as said by the local manager, they also support the go-green initiative as they are eager to play their part in preserving the environment.

Dealing with that many kids was no up-hill task for the team as it is said that during the peak season when there are regular cruise ships they have at least 70 persons to deal with per hour.