Ypsilanti, MI—December 13, 2017— Joe Mills and his wife Stacey joined over 200 other pilots and their passengers as airborne elves last weekend. They substituted airplanes for reindeer as they took to Michigan’s skies to help St. Nick deliver gifts to foster kids across the state. For the occasion, Joe flew an Ascend 172, a remanufactured and rebuilt Cessna 172 from Yingling Aviation in Wichita, Kansas which recently joined the flight instruction fleet at Eastern Michigan University. The “like-new” four-place single engine airplane joined a group of seven other airplanes from New Hudson, MI who flew to Pontiac where they were loaded with brightly-wrapped Christmas presents bound for children in Gladwin, north and east of Mount Pleasant.
It was Joe’s fourth year as a pilot for what has become a nearly half-century tradition. In its 46th year, Operation Good Cheer is a volunteer Christmas gift-giving program sponsored and coordinated by Child and Family Services of Michigan, Inc. The program was created in 1971 by individuals who wanted to make a difference in the lives of children who reside in foster care. The presents are bound for infants, children, teenagers and adults with disabilities who are currently in an authorized out-of-home placement such as foster care or a residential/group facility. This year, 246 pilots flew 260 missions to deliver 19,419 gifts to 6,743 children.
“We took off early from Willow Run Airport (KYIP) and joined up with our group in New Hudson for breakfast before flying on to Pontiac to pick up the packages taking off as a group for Gladwin,” Joe explained. “It’s all very well organized. We had an 11:30 AM arrival time in Pontiac. We took out the back seat of the Ascend 172 and were able to get a boy’s bike and 15-20 large gifts into the airplane.
“When we landed in Gladwin, we were greeted by volunteers who helped us unload the airplane and get the gifts off to their specific recipients. That’s one of the great aspects of Operation Good Cheer; it receives gift requests from individual foster kids and provides the unique gifts to each recipient. It’s a very efficient twist on the ‘naughty and nice’ list,” Joe added. “After we unloaded, we spent some time enjoying food, Christmas cookies and time with our friends and the volunteers. This was my fourth year of participation and Stacey’s first.”
“Our group consisted of eight aircraft. Isn’t that how many reindeer Santa usually has? We had an Eclipse Jet which is based in Pontiac, a Piper Cherokee Six, a Cessna 206 and a Cessna 182 from New Hudson, an experimental Velocity from northern Ohio and a Cessna 172 from Van Wert, Ohio in addition to a Sundowner and our Ascend 172 from Willow Run. In all, we carried well over a hundred packages along with seven passengers, who were, of course, a big help in loading and unloading the cargo from the airplanes. Our Ascend 172 garnered much attention from the other pilot participants and volunteers when they saw the clean looking exterior. Once I invited them inside to have a look around the cockpit they all had a surprised wide-eyed look as they took in the fresh interior and expertly laid out glass panel. You just don’t expect that level of technology and ‘curb appeal’ in a 1979 N model,” he added.
“Operation Good Cheer has grown impressively over the years to the point where it blankets the state,“ Joe explained. “Knowledgeable volunteers are needed to help out with ground operations, aircraft marshaling, loading airplanes, driving trucks on the ramp, and those types of roles for next year. The organizers are already working on next year’s airlift and they’ve put out a request to the aviation community to spread the word for both air and ground help for next year. As for us, you can count us in,” he concluded.
About Suburban Aviation
Suburban Aviation provides all of the flight training for Eastern Michigan University through its sister company, Eagle Flight Centre. EMU Aviation is known for it's small class sizes and the personal attention our students love. Students are known by name, not by number. Eastern Michigan University Aviation is located 10 minutes away from the EMU campus at the Willow Run Airport (KYIP). EMU Aviation and Eagle Flight Centre can be reached by calling 734.481.3000.
About Operation Good Cheer
For more information on Operation Good Cheer, please contact: Child and Family Services of Michigan, Inc. 2157 University Park Drive Okemos, MI 48864 (517) 349-6226 Fax: (517) 349-0969 www.cfsm.org [email protected]
