Operation Santa Claus marks 60th anniversary in Southwest Alaska villages

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 9

Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus arrive to an embrace during Operation Santa Claus on Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016, in Akiachak. The 144th Airlift Squadron supported the mission, marking the final Operation Santa Claus flown by an Alaska National Guard C-130 Hercules. (Capt. Amanda Plachek / U.S. Army National Guard)

Santa  and Mrs. Claus arrived to embraces during Operation Santa Claus on Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016, in Akiachak.

This year marked the 60th anniversary of the Alaska National Guard community relations program. Guardsmen provide logistics and air support, delivering holiday cheer and gifts to rural Alaska villages. Major donors this year included:

• Costco, which donated school backpacks;
• The Anchorage Tastee-Freez restaurant, more than 500 chocolate sundaes;
• The Armed Forces YMCA, 40 train sets;
• Starbucks, coffee and pastries for volunteers, plus a bag of coffee for every family in Togiak;
• The Salvation Army, gifts for children up to 11;
• JBER soldiers and airmen;
• Specialty Truck & Auto and the Bristol Bay Native Corp., major financial donors.

Operation Santa Claus was begun in 1956, when floods and a drought ruined the hunting and fishing season for residents in the Western Alaska village of St. Mary's. With residents having only enough money to have food shipped in and nothing left for Christmas, the mother superior of the village's Roman Catholic mission wrote a letter to the Alaska National Guard asking for help.

Radio and television stations and Anchorage's two newspapers spread the word, and within days the Guard was inundated with donations of new and used toys.