Santa catches a ride with troops to bring Christmas to Alaska village

YAKUTAT, Alaska — Neglect the open-air sleigh overloaded with presents and powered by flying reindeer.

Santa and Mrs. Claus this week took supersized rides to southeast Alaska in a C-17 navy cargo aircraft and a camouflaged Humvee, as they delivered toys to the Tlingit village of Yakutat, northwest of Juneau.

The go to was a part of this yr’s Operation Santa Claus, an outreach program of the Alaska Nationwide Guard to largely Indigenous communities within the nation’s largest state. Annually, the Guard picks a village that has suffered current hardship — in Yakutat’s case, an enormous snowfall that threatened to buckle buildings in 2022.

“This is likely one of the funnest issues we get to do, and this can be a proud second for the Nationwide Guard,” Maj. Gen. Torrence Saxe, adjutant common of the Alaska Nationwide Guard, mentioned Wednesday.

Saxe wore a Guard uniform and a Santa hat that stretched his unit’s costume rules.

The Humvee brought about a stir when it entered the varsity parking zone, and a buzz of “It’s Santa! It’s Santa!” pierced the chilly air as dozens of elementary college kids gathered outdoors.

Within the college, Mrs. Claus learn a Christmas story in regards to the reindeer Dasher. The couple in purple then sat for photographs with almost the entire 75 or so college students and handed out new backpacks crammed with presents, books, snacks and faculty provides donated by the Salvation Military. The varsity supplied lunch, and an area restaurant supplied the ice cream and toppings for a sundae bar.

Pupil Thomas Henry, 10, mentioned whereas the contents of the backpack have been “fairly good,” his favourite merchandise was a plastic dinosaur.

One other, 9-year-old Mackenzie Ross, held her new plush seal toy as she walked across the college gymnasium.

“I believe it’s particular that I’ve this chance to be right here at present as a result of I’ve by no means skilled this earlier than,” she mentioned.

Yakutat, a Tlingit village of about 600 residents, is within the lowlands of the Gulf of Alaska, on the high of Alaska’s panhandle. Close by is the Hubbard Glacier, a frequent cease for cruise ships.

A few of the Nationwide Guard members who visited Yakutat on Wednesday have been additionally there in January 2022, when storms dumped about 6 toes of snow in a matter of days, damaging buildings.

Operation Santa began in 1956 when flooding severely curtailed subsistence trying to find residents of St. Mary’s, in western Alaska. Having to spend their cash on meals, that they had little left for Christmas presents, so the navy stepped in.

This yr, visits have been deliberate to 2 different communities hit by flooding. Santa’s go to to Circle, in northeastern Alaska, went off with no hitch. Extreme climate prevented a go to to Crooked Creek, within the southwestern a part of the state, however Christmas was saved when the presents have been delivered there Nov. 16.

“We have a tendency to go to rural communities the place it is rather remoted,” mentioned Jenni Ragland, service extension director with the Salvation Military Alaska Division. “A variety of youngsters haven’t traveled to large cities the place we sometimes have Santa and massive shops with Christmas presents and Christmas timber, so we type of carry the Christmas program on the highway.”

After the C-17 Globemaster III landed in Yakutat, it rapidly returned to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, an hour away, as a result of there was nowhere to park it on the village’s tiny airport. Later, it returned to choose up the Christmas crew.

Santa and Mrs. Claus, together with their tuckered elves, have been seen nodding off on the flight again.