As Spokane tech exec Steve Paul, who goes by the name Elf Bernie this time of year, prepares for his 24th year overseeing the Fantasy Flight trip with local poor children on an Alaska Airlines jetliner to the North Pole, he is looking back but also looking ahead.

So while Paul, CEO of Northwest North Pole Adventures, looks toward the Dec. 9 flight on the 15th anniversary year of Alaska as partner, he reflects on the organization’s most successful fundraising event ever and has begun to plan for a new chapter for the event.

The traditional September fundraising event drew record attendance of 336 at the Spokane Convention Center, including two tables of Alaska attendees with new Horizon Air President Jason Berry and his wife on hand, along with frequent Fantasy Flight pilot Eric Hrivnak and his wife. Hrivnak has been at the controls of the jetliner often enough that he has become known unofficially as “Santa’s pilot.”

“This was our sixth auction since we took over the fundraising, and it exceeded our planned event goal of $150,000 by $30,000, making it possible to reach our annual target of $200,000,” Paul said.

In his immediate future is final days of preparation for the 60 children, ages 4 to 10, from five Spokane-area agencies and the kids’ elves, including 19 current or retired Alaska or Horizon employees, who will board the Alaska plane for a short but actual flight.

The mother of one of the youngsters attended as a small child years ago, Paul told me.

When the plane lands in front of a hangar at the other side of the Spokane airport after a flight of about 20 minutes, the kids will be greeted by Santa and Mrs. Claus and 212 elf volunteers. It’s then time for each child to have their personal visit with Santa. He will have received their personal wish lists ahead of time, and a gift is selected for each child from their list so Santa can reach in his sack and say “I got your list, look here!”

Looking to the future, Paul is drawn by his tech background and with the help of some digital experts at Eastern Washington University and possibly some Seattle area expertise, he envisions creating a “magical transporter” digital experience as part of the flight enhancements.

Referring to the children’s trip home to Spokane from the North Pole, Paul told me in an interview for this column that “providing the children with a digital ride home to Spokane is just the FIRST step in a larger plan.”

The current experience for the kids leaving Santa’s home is a tent with smoke, sound, and lights they pass through and board buses home. as the announcer says: “Repeat after me – I BELIEVE .. I BELIEVE .. IBELIEVE. Children, you are now back in Spokane.” Then they exit the tent to awaiting Limos that shuttle them back to the central location.

“Turning our end of the event ‘exit experience’ into something better offers many additional benefits in the future as we continue to grow, and hopefully expand,” he added.

“The Magic Transporter is just the beginning of my future planning,” said Paul, who in his other life is a digital IT program manager at Engie Impact, a Spokane energy management company.

“As I approach 68, it’s time for me to plan for the next leaders of the Spokane Fantasy Flight,” Paul says.

A fact that might be missed about this special event is that it doesn’t just benefit the children, as was made clear at an interview I did at the Columbia Tower Club a couple of weeks before the 2022 flight with Elf Bernie, pilot Hrivnak, and veteran Alaska flight attendant Carole Scallon.

Scallon, who will be aboard this year’s flight, has actually been involved in the Fantasy Flight since before Alaska became the airline partner in 2008, replacing United, which merely filled one of its Spokane planes and taxied around the airport. 

United became the first airline partner when seven female employees teamed with the YWCA in 1998 with the mission to assist Santa Claus in bringing a little transforming magic to the under-privileged and at-risk children of the Spokane area.

Because they remained involved until the United involvement ended in 2007, they became known as “Santa’s sisters” and created the 501c3 Northwest North Pole Adventures that Paul now heads.

When United was unable to provide a plane, the Sisters turned to Alaska and it is noted on the website: “Alaska Airlines did not hesitate a moment, for they knew Santa quite well and were delighted to help him with his request.”

In fact, several other airlines offered Christmas or Holiday flights for children during the past decade. While COVID ended such December events, Alaska resumed its event.

“This Fantasy Flight experience always resets my faith in humanity,” added Hrivnak, who won’t know until a few days before, when the flight is posted for pilots, whether he will be on board again.

Over the nearly a decade, I’ve been writing about this now-unique event, I’ve come to describe the spirit that settles over all those involved as the Magic Dust of Christmas Caring.

That magic dust is evidenced by the Spokane residents who help prepare for months for the flight, the businesses that donate all the products that make the event happen, the Alaska employees who participate as crew and elves. And the airline itself for making its long commitment of plane, crew and a large slice of the caring.

Over the years, other cities aware of the Alaska trip and Paul’s role have contacted him about launching a similar event. They included Seattle, and Paul provided them a list of things they needed to arrange before they could consider doing their own event.

Paul joked: “I have rarely gotten past number two before they say, ‘Oh my – we need to think about this more’ and I never hear from them again. Any city would need to have a strong and focused team to get one of these started.”

But that may be part of a changed future. Paul told me he had gotten an email last week from John Ioane, executive vice president of Odom Corp. wanting to know what would it take to bring the Fantasy Flight to Hawaii.

He said the Bellevue-based beverage company has been a corporate donor for about 10 years, that Karen Henderson from Odom is on his board, and that Odom is now a $10,000 Diamond Sponsor. 

“We are setting up a call after the event to begin to discuss, ‘Santa’s Big List’ of things to consider for the future of our event,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.