Thousands of Ford and GM employees play Santa to Michigan foster kids

Jamie L. LaReau | Detroit Free Press

Santa isn't real you say? Just try telling that to thousands of employees at General Motors and Ford Motor Co.

They play Santa every year to more than 7,000 kids in Michigan, even flying their "sleigh" to deliver 21,000 presents in Operation Good Cheer.

The program, run by Child and Family Services of Michigan, started in 1971. Ford has participated since the beginning. GM since 2015. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles does not formally participate, but a spokesman said some FCA employees do it on their own.

Thousands of workers at the companies buy, wrap, sort and fly gifts to the foster centers across the state to be distributed to the children, who range in age from infants to 18 years old. A few developmentally disabled adults also get gifts.

Often, a GM employee might unload a wrapped gift from a truck, hand it to a Ford employee, who then loads it onto a small airplane that is copiloted by an FCA employee. All are acting as Santa.

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"There’s no competition in community," said Sean O’Sullivan, GM's employee volunteer engagement officer. "We’re looking beyond who’s selling the most cars and SUVs and looking to help these kids in foster care.”

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Fancy dresses, pink please

Most of the kids have heartbreaking stories.

Take 14-year-old Landen, whose surname is withheld to protect his identity. Landen endured physical abuse, emotional neglect and substance abuse before entering foster care, according to his profile by Child And Family Services of Michigan.

"Landen tries to be nice," the profile said. "But struggles sometimes. He struggles to make friends because of his unregulated emotions."

For Christmas, Landen wants a basketball, shirts and a journal.

Then there is 5-year-old Mellary, a temporary court ward who suffered medical neglect in her home before coming to foster care. She likes to draw and dance. She's asked for coloring books, crayons and a pink outfit.

Little Harmony is also 5. She fancies herself to be a princess. In truth, she was a victim of domestic violence before foster care. She "enjoys singing and playing dress up," her profile said. Her favorite hobby is snuggling.

Harmony's Christmas wish is for Santa to bring her a "fluffy throw blanket," "dress-up stuff," accessories and "fancy dresses" in pink.

"You have to be sitting in a room by yourself to read these profiles because they’re pretty emotional," said Jerry Fullmer, senior manager with GM's OnStar, who's participated in Operation Good Cheer for three years now. "The whole event is about providing these kids with the reassurance that someone cares. A lot of these kids have never received presents and now they know there are people who have their back — people who they never met.”

Limit three ...

This year, about 800 GM employees volunteered to provide presents for 545 kids.

“What a blessing," said Fullmer. "It’s overwhelming how fast everyone swarmed all over the kids and said ‘I’m sponsoring.' ”

Ford sponsored 4,000 kids with more than 1,000 Ford employees volunteering to buy gifts, wrap them and load gifts onto planes.

Here is how Operation Good Cheer works.

Participating companies, including other major Michigan employers such as Blue Cross Blue Shield and Quicken Loans, choose the number of kids to sponsor.

Operation Good Cheer then sends the companies each child's profile.

The profiles are handed out to volunteer employees to buy gifts with their own money.

Employees are limited to three "packages" per child. But GM's O'Sullivan said often employees will put four or five gifts inside one package.

Operation Good Cheer asks that employees spend about $75 per child. Often they spend more buying bicycles, Xboxes and winter coats.

Participating employees often have gift-wrapping parties.

The wrapped gifts are transported on tractor-trailers to Oakland County International Airport on the first Friday of December.

Volunteer employees load the gifts onto airplanes for flight delivery the next day.

Super Saturday

The first Saturday in December is one of the busiest days of the year at Oakland County airport, said Fullmer, a licensed pilot since 2015.

This year, more than 250 airplanes took about 21,000 gifts to 29 airports across Michigan to deliver to various foster care agencies, said Fullmer.

Fullmer's team at GM sponsored 65 kids this year. Fullmer and Santiago Chamorro, vice president of GM Global Connected Services, have flown gifts together for the past three years in Chamorro's Cirrus SR22 Turbo four-seat airplane.

They carry 35-40 packages. While the plane is capable of flying to the Upper Peninsula with a high-performance engine, oxygen, a built-in parachute and the ability to fly at 13,000 feet, they opt to stay in the lower peninsula and let bigger jet planes fly to the U.P.

In 2017, Fullmer and Chamorro flew to Traverse City, last year they flew to Big Rapids and this year to Ludington.

"It’s electric to be at the airport and see all the presents and all the planes," said Fullmer. "When we land, we meet the people at all the different agencies. There are an army of people who come out and help us unload the airplanes.”

A family affair

In 2008, Eric Kaufman, an engineering group manager in GM's advanced vehicle development, got his pilot's license. About a year later, he noticed, "there was an awful lot of activity at the Oakland airport on the first Saturday of December."

Kaufman learned the activity was Operation Good Cheer. He wanted in.

"The reason I’m a pilot is because I enjoy it and it’s a hobby," said Kaufman. "But any time there’s an opportunity to benefit others doing something you love, that’s a benefit."

So in 2010, Kaufman sponsored two kids on his own and he made his first flight for Operation Good Cheer using a Piper four-seat propeller airplane he shares in a flying club. His copilot was fellow club member, Brad Blur, an GM engineering manager at GM's proving grounds in Milford.

When GM came on board Operation Good Cheer in 2015, Kaufman started buying gifts for more foster kids. In 2018, he and his immediate colleagues supplied 136 kids. This year, it was 197 children.

"This is the highlight of the year," said Kaufman, who has copiloted with Ford and FCA employees who are also pilots over the years.

But little did Kaufman know what a family affair he had going on.

His wife, Julie Kaufman, is an engineer at Ford. For 10 years, she had been doing gift-wrapping parties at Ford while her GM husband was flying out gifts to foster kids. But they didn't know they were both doing it for Operation Good Cheer.

"We finally put two and two together and realized we were doing the same charity," said Kaufman, laughing.

This year, Kaufman and his wife flew about 30 packages to Big Rapids on Dec. 7. When they landed, a large group of volunteers unloaded their airplane. Kaufman said 45 more planes were expected to land with presents there that day.

"There were children who came to help us unload the airplane and they formed a human chain to hand the gifts from the airplane into a truck," said Kaufman. "All were volunteering and none were recipients of those gifts."

It's that kind of Christmas spirit, being Santa for a day, that keeps Kaufman eager to do it each year, he said.

"No matter how hectic it gets, everyone is smiling," Kaufman said. "It’s such a great way to kick off the holiday season. It’s a true labor of love.”

Contact Jamie L. LaReau: 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter.