By Geri Wopschall
REACH58 (American Medical Flight) decided to donate $1,000 of their own money to bring Christmas to needy families in McGill and other designations around the state.
REACH58 planned very carefully to fly a helicopter into McGill with Santa Claus the board. Due to weather in Elko they had to change the plan to a fixed-wing airplane. They still arrived with gifts and food with donations from local people. They arrived at the McGill Fire Department where the White Pine County and McGill fire departments had an escort of fire trucks and command vehicles to escort Santa and his Elves through McGill.
The McGill fire department went to great efforts to make sure the recipients were at home. They had called the recipients to set up an appointment to have their smoke alarms checked. One couple said they didn’t need a smoke alarm because they had an all-electric home. McGill fire department said “You do need a smoke alarm.” They purchased, delivered and installed a smoke alarm while Santa handed out gifts and food.
Santa was Todd McLaughlin (Flight Nurse), Pilot Robby Testa was the short elf and Flight Nurse John Muller was the taller elf. Program manager Christopher Baird and flight nurse Bernice Johnson drove from Salt Lake to meet the plane and deliver gifts.
Local residents raise money and food to be delivered. County’s Station 1 was in charge of arranging the food and delivering it to Santa Claus. I was very grateful to be included in this magnificent effort to make Christmas great for everyone
They are planning to return to McGill and hopefully this time in a helicopter.
Fantastic job!