Santa and Mrs. Claus left Rudolph at home to catch a ride recently on an Alaska Air National Guard cargo plane to visit the Inupiat village of Nuiqsut.
Santa and Mrs. Claus chat with the flight crew of an Alaska National Guard cargo plane while en route to Nuiqsu on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022. Operation Santa Claus, the guard’s outreach program, attempts to bring Santa and Mrs. Claus and gifts to children in two or three Alaska Native villages each year.
“Some of them were out on the deck and they were jumping up and down, excited to see the plane coming in,” said Principal Lee Karasiewicz of the Trapper School, as he kept watch over pupils from the 160-student K-12 facility privileged to get a pre-Christmas visit from the jolly, fat one. Operation Santa Claus began back in 1956 when the residents of one community, St. Mary’s, found themselves without money to buy gifts. Townsfolk stung by flooding and then a drought that wipe out their subsistence hunting and fishing opportunities were forced to spend Christmas money on food instead. That’s when the guard stepped in, bringing them donated gifts and supplies.
Long accustomed to helping out in disasters, the guard sent its tribal liaison official to the town after the leak was contained. The official spoke with community members and relayed their concerns back to guard leadership. Qannik Amy Alice Woods, a second grader, didn’t want to open her backpack just yet. This was her first experience with Santa Claus, but he won her over like every other child in the world.
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