Santa Delivering Gifts, courtesy of Frank Kelty

The Ballyhoo Lions Club held their annual winter raffle in the end of December to fund the Operation Santa event that they put on each holiday season. The Operation allows Santa and his elves to provide gifts for children in outlying communities across the Aleutians. Lions Club Members successfully sold all 600 tickets during the month of December and the drawing for the winning tickets was held on December 20^th in the Grand Aleutian Hotel Lobby. The raffle included thousands of dollars’ worth of cash prizes. 

Lynnette Guitard was the grand prize winner of $2,000 while Sonny Nguyen won the second highest prize of $1,000. A couple of lucky winners walked away with $500 and eight winners took home $150 cash prizes. With the revenue from the winter raffle, the Lions Club was able to fund Operation Santa and ensure that Christmas gifts were given out to children in the Aleutian villages of Akutan, Atka, Adak, and Cold Bay. Santa made a special visit to the Eagle's View Elementary School so that Unalaskan children could receive their gifts. The Lions also sent donations of fruit to Akutan, Atka, and Nikolski. 

Lions Club President Frank Kelty said, "Lions Club members did a great job and we were very pleased to make Christmas a little better for the residents of Unalaska and the outlying villages." The Lions would like to give a special thanks to local businesses for their support including Alaska Ship Supply, Safeway, and Highliner Foods for their donation of fruit, as well as Grant Aviation for the delivery of the presents and fruit at no charge to the various villages.