Photographer Turns The Wildest Dreams Into Realities For Kids With Health Conditions

Shawn Van Daele once helped a little boy travel to outer space. A few weeks later, he swore in a young girl as the queen of Candy Land.

In his professional career, Van Daele, 37, has introduced a toddler to a giraffe, sent an adventurous child off to sea and turned more than one little girl into a butterfly. That isn't even half of his resume.

For almost two years, the photographer from Eden Mills, Ontario, has traveled across Canada and the U.S. to bring to life the imaginations of kids who battle health conditions. If a child's dream is to swim with a whale, Van Daele will make it happen. If they'd rather fly off in a hot air balloon, he can do that, too. All they have to do is draw up their wildest dream, and he'll make it a reality.

"I want to inspire the magic of childhood and let kids and their families who can use a little happiness in their life see that anything is possible," Van Daele told The Huffington Post in an email.

He calls his work the Drawing Hope Project.