Operation Good Cheer
Today I skipped work to go the Pontiac (PTK) airport to partake in operation good cheer. I know, skipping work is a "bad" thing, but oh well. Dad asked me to go with him and I enjoy doing stuff with my dad. For those of you who have no clue as to what operation good cheer is; well it is a Christmas program. Numerous companies, individuals, organizations, etc... donate time and money into buying Christmas gifts for children of families who without help wouldn't be able to have a good Christmas. Kinda like "Toys For Tots", but without Marines or Bikers. Instead how this works is that the various volunteers/contributers gather money for the program. Then the gifts are bought. These gifts are chosen by trying to follow the Chiristmas lists that the children wrote to Santa. So after the money is collected, the gifts are bought, then organized, and finally wrapped. All the wrapped gifts are stored in the main hanger at IFL East located at Pontiac airport. The wrapped gifts are separated into separate piles based on the organization (IE: which kids, where, etc...) that took place before the wrapping. Now here is where the people like me come in. This morning lots of volunteers and lots of Pilots arrived at PTK airport with one plan in mind. Deliver those gifts. Dad brought one of the planes from his flying club with the intention of flying a load of gifts or two. I planned on just working the ground crew and staying at PTK. It's never a challenge for me to do ground loading because the lifting does not bother me, besides I know how to load a plane without damaging the plane or endangering the pilot(s). Due to bad weather conditions which were IFR most of the day many planes were not able to leave and dad was afraid he wouldn't be able to fly. So, for the majority of the morning dad was out with me loading planes. Eventually they called VFR and dad was hot to trot. He pulled the plane over by truck Charlie (where I was working) and left loading his plane to me while he and Dan Green (his friend who was going with him) got to the task of De-icing the plane and brushing it off. Loading the Cessna-172 Skylane was fairly easy since there were other volunteers who were bringing me packages as many as I could fit. Dad said I had somewhere between 85-100 gifts in the Cessna. I'm happy about that. By the end of the afternoon an entire warehouse of gifts were delivered and sent to children who will have a happy Christmas thanks to "Santa" and his "elves" Due to the large portion of IFR conditions in the morning I think something like 6500-7000 gifts had to trucked out, but better to truck then not deliver them at all. All in all it was a good day and I feel real good about myself and what dad and I helped accomplish. This was my 4'th year being involved in operation good cheer and I love it every year.