Operation Good Cheer takes to the skies to deliver about 20,000 Christmas gifts to more than 6,700 children and adults with special needs around Michigan this weekend. Donated gifts will arrive for sorting inside a Pentastar Aviation hangar at Oakland County International Airport (OCIA) between 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. Friday, December 7. Volunteers will then load the gifts into about 260 airplanes for delivery to 29 airports around the state beginning at 7:00 a.m. Saturday, December 8.
“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said. “His spirit is captured by the hundreds of donors and volunteers of Operation Good Cheer who help thousands of Michigan children and adults with special needs experience the magic of Christmas.”
Each year, thousands of children and adults with disabilities make out their Christmas wish lists for Operation Good Cheer. Generous donors purchase the gifts. Trucking companies then pick up and deliver these gifts at no charge to OCIA where volunteers wrap them. Pilots who have donated their time and aircraft then fly the gifts to airports around Michigan so they can get to their intended recipients. To date, more than 99,000 individuals have had their Christmas wishes come true.
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