Christmas gifts
The program everything else grew out of. Angel Tree tags and gifts for children across the central peninsula.
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Kenai and Soldotna, Alaska
A kid should be thinking about school, not about socks
We get coats, socks, hygiene supplies, Thanksgiving meals and Christmas gifts to children on the central Kenai Peninsula. School nurses tell us what is needed. We buy it. No names, no stories, no judgment.
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Thank you
We have your details and we will come back to you.
Special Operations
Thanksgiving meals
More than a hundred full meals every year, distributed through local elementary schools.
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Clothing in schools
Clothing stores set up inside the schools and kept stocked with new coats, socks and underwear.
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Everyday essentials
The basics that never make a donation list, and that a kid notices missing every single day.
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Alaskan experiences
Snowmachine days and events that get kids outside doing something they would otherwise only hear about.
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What a gift buys
Real things, bought new, handed over quietly
We do not ask you to fund a mission. We ask you to cover something a specific kid is going without. These four are what we buy most.
Coats
Winter coats, sized to the child, not somebody's outgrown one
Socks
New socks and underwear. The most needed item and the least donated
Meals
Thanksgiving meals for families, through local elementary schools
Christmas
Gifts for kids whose parents cannot manage it this year
We publish no suggested amounts until we can show you what each item actually costs us. Ask and we will tell you.
Family's In Need
No names, no stories, no judgment
The school program runs on a rule borrowed from another local nonprofit. No family has to explain itself to qualify for a coat.
A nurse names the need
School nurses, secretaries and administrators know which kids are struggling long before anyone else does. They send a list of what is needed, never a list of who needs it.
We buy it
Bought locally, sized correctly, new. Not a donation bin and not somebody's cast off.
The kid gets it
Handed over at their own school by an adult they already know. Nobody in that hallway finds out where it came from.
Proof
What this has actually added up to
2,200+
children and families helped in a single year, on one peninsula
Nuvision Federal Credit Union, Dec 2025
$21,000
raised in one auction by Marathon Petroleum Kenai refinery employees, close to half our annual total
Marathon Petroleum, Apr 2024
100+
Thanksgiving meals provided every year through local elementary schools
Nuvision Federal Credit Union, Dec 2025
Who runs this
Matt Brown
Born and raised in Soldotna. Works Operations Excellence at the Kenai refinery. Runs this on his own time, with his family.
It began in 2017 as sponsor money from snowmachine races redirected to a few local families at Christmas, thirty people that first year. For a long stretch his house was a year round warehouse stacked with toys and supplies. Friends pushed him to file as a nonprofit because corporate donors needed something to give to, and after that it grew faster than he planned.
We do not want students worrying about having clothes to wear to school when they should be able to focus on their education.
Matt Brown, founder
One coat is not a small thing
Whatever you give buys something specific for a child within driving distance of you. That has been true since the first year and it is not going to change.
Operation Children First is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, EIN 84-3299344, recognized by the IRS since October 2019, running as a local effort since 2017. Gifts are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. Online giving is not switched on yet, so reach us on Facebook and we will take it from there.