Dear Santa. Words associated with kids asking for the hottest new toy or the latest far-fetched trend. But for some children, it is an opportunity to receive a present otherwise out of their reach. The holidays are rapidly approaching, and with it comes Operation Santa.
Operation Santa is an annual service event spearheaded by UC San Diego’s community service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega, that aims to bridge the gap between underserved communities and those who have the means to support them. This event reaches families of diverse income levels throughout San Diego County. As one of Alpha Phi Omega’s flagship events, Operation Santa allows fraternity members to gain experience coordinating a large organizational effort and supporting families in need.
“At Operation Santa, our mission is to spread the spirit of the holidays to underprivileged families by providing them with clothing and toys,” said Ashley Burke, a third-year human biology major at Eleanor Roosevelt College, and the Operation Santa chair. “We do this by advertising our project throughout September and October and gain as many adopters as we can. Then we facilitate the process of matching adopters with selected families and collect and wrap the gifts that are dropped off to residences by mid-December.”
Adoptees request items pertinent to their households such as baby toys, blankets, kitchenware, and clothing. Alpha Phi Omega members then purchase, wrap, and deliver the gifts.
“Since its inception in 2007, Operation Santa started by reaching two families and grew to support over 150 families and 600 individuals in 2021 altogether. The majority of their adopters are either current UCSD students or alumni who have been involved in the project’s inception,“ stated Alexander Tran, Operation Santa’s 2021 chair.
It is not just families that benefit from Operation Santa. For students like Burke, this event serves as an opportunity to get involved beyond the initial donation by taking a leadership role in the event.
“From being a part of Operation Santa, I personally get to help make a direct impact on the holidays of over 100 families. It is an extremely rewarding experience to be able to help organize this project, and I am so excited to see the families when we drop off the presents!” Burke said.
Burke and her three co-chairs spend more than two months organizing the effort from start to finish, meeting regularly to send out emails, match families, and plan drop-offs and delivery routes. For the 2022 holiday season, Alpha Phi Omega members began delivering gifts to families near the end of November and finished the last deliveries on December 3.
“It is an ongoing time commitment, but so worth it!”, Burke said. “I hope to continue doing projects like this in the future. It is definitely a larger scale project, so it would be difficult to do by yourself, which is why I love that Alpha Phi Omega has been running this project with lots of support for the last decade, but I would be extremely interested in any similar opportunities in the future.“
Hendrik Musolf is a Staff Writer for The Triton.