Operation Good Cheer
Urgent Need: Be the reason a child believes in holiday magic.
Hundreds of children in foster care across Michigan are still waiting for donors to fulfill their holiday wishlists.
Please check back later for more details on the Operation Good Cheer!
Unwrapping Hope, One Gift at a Time
Snowflakes swirl in the crisp December air as trucks rumble through Michigan streets, carrying brightly wrapped packages filled with magic and hope. Inside each carefully chosen gift lies more than ribbon and bows—it carries a message: You are loved. You are valued. You are not forgotten.
What began over 55 years ago as a handful of volunteers delivering gifts to 66 children in foster care has blossomed into a heartwarming tradition that reaches thousands of children and youth in foster care each year.
Nearly 7,000 children wake up to gifts they wished for, wrapped with love by more than 250 groups and individuals. More than 30 transportation companies transform highways into pathways of joy as hundreds of pilots take to the skies to deliver lovingly wrapped packages to nearly a hundred child welfare agencies who ensure each present reaches the right hands. Hundreds of volunteers work tirelessly to make holiday dreams come true.
On the first Friday and Saturday of December, communities unite in bustling warehouses, where laughter fills the air and mountains of presents await their journey. Volunteers carefully sort, package, and deliver each gift, ensuring that a child who has faced neglect, abandonment, or loss wakes up to something truly special.
These gifts are not just toys or clothes—they are symbols of hope, reminders that even in the darkest moments, kindness shines through.
Operation Good Cheer Made Christmas Wishes Come True in 2025
December 5, 2025, marked our 55th year of Operation Good Cheer! This year we were grateful to serve
- 6,243 children and youth in foster care across Michigan received
- 18,729 carefully chosen and carefully wrapped gift
- 293 generous donor groups and individuals
- 90 child welfare agencies participated
- Thousands of volunteer pilots, truck drivers, and ground crew!
Thank you all for your time and willingness to support Operation Good Cheer!
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Pilot Volunteers
Pilots are needed to transport Christmas presents from Oakland County International Airport to airports across Michigan during our Spirit of Good Cheer flight on Saturday, December 5, 2026. Flights begin at 7:30 am. If you are available, please sign up on the website below. Make sure to choose “pilot” to be able to enter your plane information.
Please sign up by December 1, 2026.
Ground Crew Volunteers
We are looking for volunteers to assist during our 2026 Spirit of Good Cheer flight weekend. Volunteers will be needed both Friday, December 4, 2026 and Saturday, December 5, 2026. If you are available please sign up on the website below. If you are a new volunteer you will need to create a username and password.
Please sign up by December 1, 2026.
Friday – December 4, 2026
Volunteers are needed 10:00 am to 8:00 pm. There are many volunteer opportunities. A few of them are helping unload approximately 20,000 incoming Christmas gifts that are wrapped and bagged from donor and ground transport vehicles, assuring the gifts go to the correct location in the hangar, wrapping gifts that need repairs, and loading gifts onto trucks and planes.
All volunteers should report to Pentastar Aviation at 7310 Highland Rd, Waterford, MI 48327. It is west of the Oakland County International Airport Control Tower. When you arrive, you will be asked to sign a waiver, choose where you would like to work, and then you will be shown your assigned area.
Saturday – December 5, 2026
Volunteers are needed from 7:00 am to 2:00 pm (possibly later depending on weather) to help load approximately 20,000 wrapped and bagged Christmas presents onto small aircraft and trucks.
All volunteers should report to Pentastar Aviation west of the Oakland County International Airport Control Tower. When you arrive, you will be asked to sign in and choose where you would like to work and then will be shown your assigned area.
Pilots
Pilots are needed to transport Christmas presents from Oakland County International Airport to airports across Michigan during our Spirit of Good Cheer flight on Saturday, December 6, 2025. Flights begin at 7:30 am. If you are available, please sign up on the website below. Make sure to choose “pilot” to be able to enter your plane information.
Pilot Application
Please submit by December 1, 2025
Contact
For additional information, please email OGC@childandfamily.org or call Emmanuel Boateng, Program Manager at 517.882.4000, Ext. 133 or email emmanuel.boateng@childandfamily.org.
We would like to thank all individuals, companies, groups, and organizations that volunteer and/or donate their services, equipment, and time each year to help make Operation Good Cheer a success.
Together, we’re not just delivering presents, we’re delivering hope, joy, and belonging.
Thank you!
We would like to thank all individuals, companies, groups, and organizations that volunteer and/or donate their services, equipment, and time each year to help make Operation Good Cheer a success.
WE COULD NOT DO THIS WITH OUT YOU!
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Pentastar, Oakland County Airport
Looney Baker, Quido’s Pizza, Cookie place?
Ryder, Ford, Trucking Co’s, Other Airports/hangers
About the Event
This volunteer Christmas Gift-giving program has been in serving children in foster care throughout Michigan since 1971! Through donor support, Operation Good Cheer provides a minimum of three gifts to children, youth and young adults in the Michigan foster care program and to adults with disabilities.
Donor groups and individuals purchase and wrap gifts from participant wish lists. At donor sites, the gifts are picked up, loaded and transported by volunteer trucking companies and drivers to the Oakland County Airport. Volunteers sort these gifts, and pilots and truckers transport the gifts to the various agencies and groups that will then distribute the gifts to the individual recipients.
This amazing program truly is an operation! That’s why we call it Operation Good Cheer!