Thule sends money for Qaanaaq’s kids at Christmas

Thule Air Base’s 800 employees raised nearly $21,000 during the 2003 “Operation Julemand,” an annual drive that benefits the Qaanaaq municipality’s 260 children.

Julemand is the Danish word for Santa Claus.

The money raised every year by the Julemand campaign supports a youth centre in Qaanaaq, a community of about 900 people located 100 kilometres northwest of the base, and provides Christmas gifts for the district’s children.

The fundraiser began in 1959 when families in Qaanaaq and at Dundas Radio Station sent their children to school on the base. The money raised was used to buy Christmas presents for those children.