(Photo courtesy of Alaska Army National Guard)
Santa is going to be a little late to a few villages this year. Freezing fog in Bethel this week, and the week before, prevented the Army National Guard from flying their UH-60 Black Hawk to Akiak, Tuluksak and Grayling to deliver toys and food for Alaska’s 60th Operation Santa Claus.
Since 1956, the tradition has brought together the Alaska National Guard, local businesses and community groups to collect and deliver gifts to a few villages each year.
“We asked the schools when we got weathered out this time, we said, ‘Would you like to distribute everything before Christmas, or would you like us to reschedule, knowing that we could not make it until the 4th, 5th or 6th?'” April Gettys said. Gettys organizes the event for the Guard. “So the villages all agreed they’d rather have us come out with Santa Claus and some of the military members and give the kids the attention that we’re able to give to all the other villages.”
The trip is rescheduled for the first week of January, after school gets back in session.
“It’s post Christmas, but it’s pre-Russian Orthodox [Slavic],” Gettys said.
Slavic is January 7. The holiday is celebrated in Akiak and Tuluksak, but not Grayling. Logistics mean that gifts to all three villages have to be delivered the same day.
And what do the kids get?
“Well it depends on what Santa’s elves make,” Gettys said. “It could be anything from models to Legos, basketballs, soccer balls, paint supplies, art supplies.”
Every child age zero to 18 receives a gift. School age kids receive a backpack of school supplies and a personal hygiene bag.
“Which consists of toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, conditioner,” Gettys said.
And it doesn’t stop there. The operation also brings out fresh fruit – bananas, apples, and oranges – and one ton of non-perishable food for the village.
“It’s flour, sugar, rice, powdered milk, cereal, canned veggies, pasta, soup. We reached out to the villages and asked them what they could utilize most, and that was the list that they gave us,” Gettys said.
If weather doesn’t cooperate in January, the village schools will distribute the food and presents. In fact, they’re already sitting there, waiting for Santa to hand them out.
Operation Santa Claus already made deliveries to Akiachak and Togiak earlier this season.
Anna Rose MacArthur is a reporter at KYUK in Bethel.
