Santa Flight
At TVS Pro, we try our best to give back to the community when we can! That’s why we’re a proud sponsor of Santa Flight where Steve Bollinger, one of our owners and our Chief Financial Officer, coordinates. Steve along with his brother Jerry, and Jerry’s son James who also works at TVS Pro, are active pilots that participate.
What is Santa Flight?
Every year one title one school in Utah is chosen and a special flight by Santa, his elves, and several (usually 20+) airplanes (and sometimes other modes of transportation) gather physical and monetary donations to fly and deliver to the school. A special school assembly is usually held with singing, sometimes dancing, and a special visit from Santa and some of his elves! Needed supplies and goods are delivered along with checks, written out to the school, which are hand-delivered.
Christmas 2023
This year will be the 23rd year that a Santa Flight has been made to a title one school. The title one school that has been chosen for this year is Sunset Elementary School in St. George, UT. The school has a limited budget, has about 500 kids, and many families have poverty level incomes. We will be gathering new or gently used school supplies, books, backpacks, clothing, coats, hats, boots, blankets, toys and monetary donations.
On December 7th, between 20-25 plains will arrive at the St. George airport where members of the Army National Guard and Mountain America Credit Union Volunteers will help unload all the planes. The children from Sunset Elementary School will be bussed out to the airport to wait for Santa, Mrs. Clause, and the elves in one of the hangars. There will be a short assembly, hosted by the school’s principal. The children will serenade the pilots with holiday songs and Steve Bollinger will present the donations to the school.
How you can help
We are looking for individuals, groups, and organizations, to help collect items and/or monetary donations. We ask that physical donations be placed in small boxes or garbage bags and then weighed and labeled with their weight so that the pilots can see what the weight is – as the planes have weight limits for flights.
Items can be brought to TVS Pro. The last day we will be accepting donations is December 1st. Our address is:
170 East 2100 South
Salt Lake City, UT
Alternatively, items can be brought out to the South Valley Regional Airport on Dec. 2nd at 9:00 am.
South Valley Regional Airport
7365 South 4450 West
West Jordan, Utah
Monetary Donations
Those that would like to make a physical monetary donation can make checks out to WCSD Foundation, which is a 501 c3 organization. Checks can be delivered or mailed, prior to December, to:
Steve Bollinger
170 E. 2100 So.
SLC, UT 84115
All physical monetary donations will be hand-delivered to the principal of the school.
Alternatively, if you’d like to donate via Venmo, you can Venmo @WCSD_Foundation. Make sure to reference Santa Flight.
If you have any additional questions regarding the Santa Flight, you can contact Steve Bollinger at [email protected] or call 801-455-4009.
Steve Bollinger
Angel Flight Utah Wing Leader
Steve is a volunteer pilot for Angel Flight’s West Division and is the current Wing Leader, or Director, for the entire state of Utah. Angel Flight is a nonprofit, 501 (c) (3) organization that coordinates volunteer pilots across the United States who volunteer to fly people, using their own planes, time, and gas, to their out-of-town medical appointments at no cost to the passenger. In 2021 there were over 175 coordinated Angel Flights in Utah, which was surpassed in 2022.
An Angel Flight West regional team member usually helps choose the title one schools that are chosen and participates in the delivery of goods.
For more information on Angel Flight West, to volunteer, or give (in multiple ways), please visit their website: https://www.angelflightwest.org/
