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The National Guard helps make sure kids in a remote Alaskan village get a visit from Santa. The children of Nuiqsut, a roadless village 250 miles above the arctic circle, recently got a special visit from Santa and Mrs Claus. The king and queen of Christmas hitched a ride to the remote village near the Arctic Ocean on an Alaska Air National Guard cargo plane and were greeted by dozens of excited kids.
Since 1956, the Alaska National Guard has been running “Operation Santa Claus,” bringing St. Nick to small towns and villages in some of the most remote places across the state. Lee Karasiewicz, principal of the one school in town, says the kids were jumping up and down when they saw the plane coming in. “They knew right away by the size of the plane, who was on that plane,” he says.
In addition to Santa and Mrs. Claus the plane also carried more than 14-hundred pounds of gifts for the kids of Nuiqsut. Each child got a chance to visit with the couple and each was given a backpack filled with snacks, books, and gifts. In Alaskan culture, it’s considered rude to refuse a gift or a request, so at the insistence of the locals, before they left the village, everyone danced to a few songs with Santa and Mrs Claus.
Source: Sunny Skyz