The Friends of Flying Santa are happy to report that our December 2000 flights to New England's lighthouses went extremely well. Another year of preparations involving fund-raising events, recruiting sponsors and our many other responsibilities were a success. We were once again very fortunate to receive a large number of toys from the Lego Corporation of Enfield, Connecticut. Their generous donations over the past few years have been greatly appreciated by those of us involved in the flight preparations as well as the children that received them. We are also grateful for a last minute donation of stuffed toys for the younger children. This surprise contribution came from Deanna Blackburn who works for a home-based toy distribution company headquartered in California. The voluminous task of wrapping all these items fell to a great crew of volunteer "wrappers" who turned out on November 30th at the Point Allerton Coast Guard Station in Hull. The resident Coast Guard crew pitched in as well to assist us. Over the years, this has become a tradition at the station and the efforts of all involved are much appreciated by the Friends.

Flight 1- Newburyport to Cape Cod Canal

We suffered a minor setback when our helicopter sponsor for the Boston area flight, WCVB TV-5, informed us that they would not be able to participate this year due to budget constraints. Channel 5 has been a major supporter of Flying Santa for more than 10 years and we will always be grateful for their role in making our past flights so successful. Unfortunately, we were unable to find another sponsor for the flight so it was necessary for us to foot the bill for that day's flight in addition to our usual charter costs for the Cape to New York trip. Thanks to the success of our fundraising efforts last year (and our generous contributors!), we did have the funds available to cover this additional expense. We will be working hard this year to recoup those funds and continue to be prepared for the unexpected "budget busters". We took off for the Massachusetts Bay flights on Saturday, December 9th with our Santa, USCG CWO David Waldrip and our always-accommodating pilot, Dale Hardy of Wiggins Airways. As always, Dave did an outstanding job as Santa. Stops were made at Newburyport, Annisquam Harbor and Eastern Point Light along the North Shore. At Boston Light, on behalf of the Friends, he presented the light- keepers a gift certificate to a local supermarket. The keepers scheduled for duty Christmas Day would use this to purchase all the necessities for making a festive Christmas dinner on the isolated island. Santa's next stop was Point Allerton and its hard working crew of "wrappers", joined by their delighted families. Moving south to Scituate Light, Santa encountered a bride and groom among the festive crowd. The newlywed couple wanted a picture with Santa, who willingly obliged. He was rewarded with the chance to kiss the bride, which did not go unnoticed by Mrs. Claus, (Dave's wife Diane) who was among the crowd of onlookers. Diane graciously accepted this as one of Santa's obligatory responsibilities. At this point in the flight, Dave was joined by his sons Greg and Shaun, who assisted him with the last two stops of the day at Station Cape Cod Canal and Plymouth Light.

Flight 2 - Cape Cod to New York

On Sunday, December 10th we made our flight to lighthouses on Cape Cod and the Islands, as well as the shores of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Long Island, New York. The crew for this trip included our veteran Flying Santa, George Morgan, "Elf" Diane Waldrip, photographer Brian Tague and pilot, Dale Hardy. Diane did a wonderful job of assisting George with his distribution duties. The Waldrip family has fallen quite easily into their Flying Santa roles and we appreciate their continued dedication to the program. There was great weather for the bulk of the day's trip, with just a bit of cloud cover rolling in at the end of the day. From our first take-off to our final landing, it takes almost 11 hours to complete all our stops. Departing from Norwood Airport we headed off to Cape Cod Light, Chatham, Brant Point and West Chop Light before hitting one of our biggest stops of the route, Nobska Point. Here we were greeted by Capt. Russ Webster, Commander of Group Woods Hole. With the Captain's tour finishing up next summer, this was the Webster family's last Christmas at the light. They have generously kept up the tradition of hosting the base's Coast Guard crews and their families during Santa's visit to the light. We wish them well for their next tour of duty.

In the afternoon we tackled the western part of our route. Enjoying stops at Warwick, Castle Hill, Point Judith and Montauk Light. Throughout the six states that we visited, we had plenty of newspaper and TV coverage. The extra exposure always helps in introducing our program to many new friends. A crew from Connecticut's Hartford Courant newspaper joined us for our stops at Lynde Point and Stratford Point Lights. At our final stop of the day, Eaton's Neck Light, we encountered the Milmoe family for the ninth time in as many years. Since 1992, their 10-year-old son Ryan has been present for every Flying Santa visit to the light at Northport, New York. Joined for the past few years by his sister, Megan, we look forward to seeing Ryan and his family across the Sound in Connecticut where they will transfer to later this year.

Flight 3 (and 4)- New Hampshire and Maine

The following Saturday, December 16th, our friends at Fisher Scientific International once again assisted us with our flight to northern New England. They provided us with their Agusta 109 helicopter and pilots Arthur Godjikian and LaRay Todd. With these good humored and well-experienced pilots at the controls, George and Brian departed from Pease International Airport in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This was expected to be the last day of the flights but with a fast moving weather front making its way in, the possibility of rescheduling the afternoon stops loomed close. We had great receptions from the crews at Portsmouth Harbor, Goat Island and from the site of our largest crowd of the year, Portland Head. At Burnt Island Light, we were greeted by a hearty crowd that had been ferried out from the mainland. George took part in what has become an annual tradition for Flying Santa - hoisting a massive wreath up the side of the lighthouse tower. Our next stop at Pemaquid Point went well, but when we arrived at Marshall Point we knew that the threatening weather would prevent us from going any further. The phone calls went out with the disappointing news along with the promise that we would return the following Monday to complete the run.

As promised, two days later we returned to Portsmouth and loaded up the helicopter to make our way up to mid-coast Maine. It was a spectacular day for flying. With clear blue skies, we headed up to an altitude of 6,000 feet at speeds in excess of 150 MPH. The view was breathtaking and made it easy to realize why so many pilots love their jobs. Our first stop was Rockland Airport where we were greeted by relatives of Capt. William Wincapaw still living in the Rockland area. George handed out gifts to 5-year-old twins Abbie and Drew and 9-year-old Lottie. The children, who had taken the day off from school just for this occasion, had their pictures taken with Santa in and around the helicopter. We presented the other members of the Wincapaw family with copies of the Friends' recently printed Origins and History of the Flying Santa. They thoroughly enjoyed being part of the holiday tradition started by Capt. Wincapaw so many years before.

We continued on to stops at Fort Point and Dice Head. At Bass Harbor Head, we met an older couple that by chance happened to be driving by the field as we were landing. As it turned out, the couple, Dolly and Harold Cummings, had been keepers at Maine's Great Duck Island Light in the 1950's and had been visited by Edward Rowe Snow on a few of his Christmas flights. They were very excited to see the latest Flying Santa and to know that the tradition was still being carried on. They could not resist having their picture taken with Santa and his helicopter. This chance encounter made their holiday and we enjoyed getting acquainted with one of the program's past recipients.

Our last stop of the day -and the year - was up to USCG Station Jonesport. This was a new stop for us and its location, about 35 miles shy of the Canadian border, made it our most remote. The crew and families of this isolated outpost had especially looked forward to Santa's visit. The station was well decorated for the festivities and we were given an extremely enthusiastic reception from everyone present. It had been a tough week for the station. They were involved in the search and recovery of three local fishermen who had drowned just a few days earlier. A severe windstorm the day before our arrival had done considerable damage to the station's dock and had also left many of the crew's nearby homes without power and heat. The visit of the Flying Santa was a more than welcome distraction. It was fitting that this was our last stop. It brought home how much the efforts of the Friends of Flying Santa are appreciated and enjoyed by the Coast Guard families. Especially, when the responsibilities of the job and the sometimes-harsh locations make for a tough stretch. As always, none of our success would have been possible without the support of our many hard working volunteers, loyal sponsors and generous contributors. We sincerely thank you!

The Friends' photographer and board member, Brian Tague, took over 500 photographs during this year's flights. He is now in the process of preparing these for publication on our website. They will be placed in a special gallery section that will be indexed by each lighthouse that we visited. Our webmaster, Penny Morgan, hopes to have these posted within the next month. So stay tuned to the website for this in-depth photo essay of the 2000 Flying Santa flights. This will be the first time that we have been able to display the complete collection of a year's flights to such a large audience. We hope you will enjoy them.