Even in the communities closest to the North Pole, Santa relies on a little help from his friends.
For 14 years, Alaska Airlines has been proud to team up with the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve to carry toys to thousands of children in remote towns across the state of Alaska. Captain Tom Sharkey has helped deliver toys to children in the state of Alaska since 2006, and for many years has coordinated donations and logistics with Alaska Air Cargo teams and ramp agents at cities across the state.
This year, our teams will carry 16,000 pounds of toys to our 20 stations, where Marines will pick them up and deliver them to remote communities – often traveling the final legs of the journey via snowmachine.
“It’s an incredible feeling to give a child a toy, and you see the happiness and the joy,” said Sharkey, who has volunteered for Toys for Tots since his military service days in the early 1990s. “I’m just a Christmas man.”
Delivering toys in minus-60-degree temperatures does double duty as Arctic training for the Marines, and some are flying up from Guam this year to take part in the mission. “Some get a little skittish about landing in Kotzebue and Nome, and I keep telling them, ‘If I can put a 143,000-pound jet on the Kotzebue runway, so can you,’’ Sharkey said.
Air Force, Army and Marines service members from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson outside Anchorage also contribute to the effort, which will deliver toys to more than 8,000 children this year.
When boxes of toys arrive at the airports, they seem to bring almost as much holiday cheer to the ramp and cargo agents as they do to the children, Sharkey said. “I see them smiling and laughing when the boxes arrive,” he said.
“Doing this brings joy not only to me, but all the people involved. They have a significant impact on their communities, they really do.”
— Alaska Airlines Captain Tom Sharkey
Donate to the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots
