Operation Elf: Christmas Impact

Boots on the Ground This Christmas

Bringing Hope, Warmth, and Joy—When It Matters Most Operation ELF is Higher Purpose–The Event Foundation’s Christmas outreach initiative, created to ensure that no veteran, child, or family feels forgotten during the holidays. What began as a mission to give has become a hands-on movement of love, dignity, and direct service. 

Through Operation ELF, we don’t just give during Christmas, we show up and serve. 

Thanks to the support of our community and the success of the Operation ELF Toy Run 2025, we were able to serve throughout the entire holiday season, working directly with veterans, children, and families in need.

Our teams were present in the field—delivering:

  • Groceries and Christmas dinners to veteran families
  • Holiday gifts and essential items to ensure stability and warmth
  • Jackets and blankets distributed to our unhoused community on Christmas Eve

This work is personal, in-person, and rooted in compassion.

Serving Children With Love and Dignity

Operation ELF provided Christmas support to hundreds of children, including those in foster care and specialized treatment programs. Through our partnerships with Bridges and the STARS Program, we provided:
  • Brand-new blankets
  • Stuffed animals
  • Multiple toys per child
  • Holiday gifts for children with open CPS cases
We also distributed toys and blankets weekly to organizations serving children across the region and donated turkeys and hams to the Sacramento Receiving Home.

Christmas Stories That Changed Lives

Some moments define the heart of Operation ELF:
  • Helping make Christmas special for a little girl who lost her mother by providing gifts and essentials for her caregiver
  • Supporting a disabled father of three with groceries, gifts, utilities, and basic necessities
  • Fulfilling a grandmother’s Christmas wish by helping recover her impounded car and surprising her granddaughter with presents
  • Providing disabled veterans with groceries and necessities for the month.
  • Surprising veteran families by fulfilling their wishlists for Christmas.
These are not statistics, these are lives touched, hearts lifted, and hope restored.

Why Operation ELF Matters

Christmas can be one of the hardest times of year for those facing loss, hardship, or instability. Operation ELF exists to meet people where they are, reminding them they are seen, valued, and not alone. 

It is an extraordinary privilege to serve in this way and to witness firsthand the impact that compassion, generosity, hope, and community can make.