Pair cheer neighbours with Disney characters on parade
ONE South Wales couple have been using their daily exercise allowance to cheer up neighbours during lockdown – by dressing up as Disney characters.
Over the past few weeks Ben Garnham, 41, and his girlfriend, Dawn Morris, 42, have been walking around the streets of Bridgend wearing Mickey and Minnie Mouse costumes.
The pair say they often dressed up for events, but since lockdown have been using their costumes to bring fun to people during the pandemic.
The idea has been a hit with people around Brackla, with many coming outside especially to see Minnie and Mickey walk past.
Ben said: “The original idea was just to do odd days as different characters for our exercise where we wanted to go locally while social distancing.
“We did Deadpool walking a dinosaur on a big chain first, which was funny, then Mickey and Minnie, and that’s when it escalated and we were inundated with lovely comments and messages.
“There has been lots of love for Mickey and Minnie in our area, which is awesome, but we didn’t expect it to take off like it has.
“I’ve had hundreds of requests to visit streets and do birthday visits.”
The couple said they were doing this purely to make people happy in their spare time since the pandemic had caused their business to dry up.
“We have a lot of costumes. Our main business is that we DJ and the mascots are a sideline, so we have a few characters.
“We’re not charging anything to make people smile. When we walk about we play music, and for birthday visits we buy cards and presents out of our own pocket, which we can’t really afford as all our work has dried up because of the virus – no large gatherings.
“We are doing this for a few reasons, but mainly to raise a smile.
“We’re big kids at heart, we love and miss Comic Cons as they were all cancelled due to the virus and it’s just nice to give something back to your community.”
The couple said they made sure to follow government advice and rules on social distancing, and reminded people on Facebook to do the same as they walked down the streets. For people living too far away to meet Minnie and Mickey, the couple have found other ways to make sure they are not missing out.
“For people we can’t visit; for example, if they’re too far away, we make a video of us as Mickey and Minnie to send to them which we can personalise with their child’s name and age,” said Ben. “While on foot the costumes are hot on a warm day, so we can only visit so many in one day.”
He added: “We try our best and if we can’t do it we ask them to message us to arrange another date.
“People want us to visit streets to cheer everybody up – not just kids – and it seems to be working.
“It’s great to see the smiles, not only from kids but the adults too.
“We’ve even been clapped by whole streets of people which I don’t think we deserve.
“We would like to say a massive thank-you to everybody for all the love they’ve shown us.”
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