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Santa in the North

December 7, 2021 in Giving Back
Explorer: Spring 2022

With a little help from Rise Air, Santa will visit the communities of Fond Du Lac, Stony Rapids, Black Lake and Wollaston Lake on December 13 & 14.

Santa plans to visit the schools in person, but will be taking special precautions once again this year due to COVID-19. While he’s there, Santa and his elves will make sure each child receives a special gift bag containing a gift, book, oranges, and other treats. 

Many partners came on board to help bring Santa to the Athabasca region. Rise Air provided freight and administration of the program. Cameco, Orano, the Northern Store, Northern Lights Community Development, Harold’s Family Foods and SSR Seabeeprovided gift bags with toys and treats for children. “Nearly 1300 kids received a gift bag this year,” says Tracy Young-McLean, VP of Human Resources and Corporate Services. “This is a huge initiative involving many people, and we cannot thank our partner companies enough for their contributions. I also want to recognize our team of organizers who really went above and beyond to make this program happen. We are excited to be able to bring Santa into the communities again this year, and we look forward to continuing this long-standing annual tradition for another year.”

Points Athabasca, Athabasca Basin Development, Team Drilling, Flyer Electric, Points North, and Athabasca Basin Security provided a book for each child from daycare to grade 12. “This is the fourth year we’ve worked together as a group to provide a book to each of the kids,” says Kristy Jackson, Director of Marketing & communications at Athabasca Basin Development. “This year’ we’re pleased that we were able to find over 100 different titles by Indigenous authors, and the majority of the 1300 books going to the kids are by Indigenous authors this year. We’ll be posting our list of authors on our website, and it’s free to anyone who wants to support Indigenous authors.”   

This is the 10th year Athabasca Basin Development has been a part of this program and the 21st year Santa has visited the region by plane.

Click here for a printable list of the Indigenous authors and their books that we were able to find.