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SALT LAKE CITY — Over a dozen pilots gathered in Salt Lake City to fly Christmas gifts and needed supplies to the Navajo Nation Reservation in southeastern Utah as part of the “Backcountry Santas” program.
“Thank you, guys, so much,” Mike Huish said to the other pilots before their mission. “I’m overwhelmed with how many people showed up.”
The pilots met Huish at his Salt Lake City hangar to help get his Backcountry Santa program off the ground.
“I think in past years, we’ve wondered, how do you give back? What do you do? What’s something different, right? We wanted to do something,” Huish said.
Huish runs Huish Outdoors, a successful scuba diving gear company based in Salt Lake City, and heard a story about a guy who used to fly a small plane to the Navajo Nation Reservation in southeastern Utah to deliver Christmas gifts.
“Yeah, I remember several years ago there used to be a guy who would come down,” said Fernanda Hill, who works at Huish Outdoors.
Hill grew up in Aneth, a small community on the Navajo Nation Reservation.
When Huish asked her about that guy who used to deliver gifts, she told him the story.
“The community would just all come together and gather around and get what they can get. It was a big deal for us because we’re so isolated down there,” Hill said.
Huish wanted to do something similar, but not only gifts, because he knows the need in that part of Utah is greater than just toys.
“It’s hard down there, especially with the elders,” he said. “A lot of the elders, people don’t have running water, they don’t have electricity, they heat their homes with wood.”
He and other businesses collected food, blankets, clothes, toiletries, and even toys, to deliver to the Aneth community.
Huish then asked around to see if pilots would be willing to help him deliver it all.
When word spread with those in the Backcountry Pilots Association, a lot of pilots said they would volunteer to help.
“Helping other people out just brings good karma, good thoughts, and good feelings for everybody,” said Regan Richmond, one of the pilots who volunteered to fly boxes of items to the Navajo Reservation.
The group of airplanes left Salt Lake City Friday morning and flew to Montezuma Creek, where residents bladed a small runway in a dirt field for the pilots to safely land their planes on.
From there, the boxes were loaded onto a truck and taken to the Aneth Chapter House to be divided amongst those in the community who needed them.
“We were blown away by how big the need really is,” Huish said.
He knows he can’t help everybody, but he’s happy a lot of people came together to do a little something.
“Well, it’s the season, right?” Huish said with a smile.
The group now calls itself the Backcountry Santas and they hope to make this an annual tradition that will only get bigger – especially for Christmas.
“That’s what it’s all about,” Huish said. “For those of us who have a lot to be able to give back.”
