For a number of Bay Area kids in particular need of some holiday cheer, Santa Claus makes a special effort to impress. Forget that sleigh business. Reindeer are so retro, and this is Silicon Valley.

For these children, Santa's hitching a ride on a shiny blue police helicopter.

The jolly old elf's expected arrival in Mountain View on Saturday at the San Jose Police Department's Moffett Field helicopter hangar is part of an event hosted by a foundation established two years ago by a group of officers to help children battling cancer.

``The kids faces just light up,'' said Analisa Velasquez, a social work clinician at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford who works closely with many of the families who attend the Christmas Fantasy Flight event, now in its third year. ``It makes them feel special. And they should, because they're going through something terribly difficult.''

The event is sponsored by Cops Care Cancer Foundation, the brainchild of San Jose Police officer Brian Simuro, who had hoped to start a non-profit to help children fighting the life-threatening disease.

Simuro, 32, knows just how they feel. In 1991 when he was a 16-year-old high school sophomore living near Sacramento, a doctor examining Simuro's neck after a football injury noticed his lymph nodes were swollen. Simuro was diagnosed with advanced Hodgkin's disease, a form of lymphoma cancer.

For nearly two years, Simuro underwent high doses of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The 10-year veteran of San Jose's police force has been in remission ever since. But the ordeal left a lasting impression.

As with so many families in their situation, the high cost of Simuro's care proved a crushing financial millstone. Medical bills alone topped $1 million. And his parents had to cut back their work hours to care for him, including daily three-hour drives from their home in Rocklin north of Sacramento to Lucile Packard Children's Hospital for treatment. What insurance wouldn't cover came out of their own pockets.

Before long, Simuro's parents sought financial aid from the hospital, and donors' generosity reimbursed his family for some of the costs associated with his treatments, travel expenses and housing.

Simuro vowed some day to return the favor.

``I realized there are not a whole lot of donations going to the kids to keep their minds off the pain,'' Simuro said.

In April 2004, Simuro enlisted fellow officers Fabian Torrico, Mark Womack and Steve Donohue to start the foundation. In addition to providing financial aid to children stricken with cancer and their families, the foundation also donates money to the Packard Children's Hospital and a survivor's scholarship fund.

The foundation hosts two major fundraisers a year -- a golf contest and a Texas hold 'em poker tournament -- and also collects donations from officers through automatic paycheck deductions. Total assets have grown from an initial $5,000 to $10,000 a year to $40,000 in donations, with nearly a third of the city's police force contributing and dozens of corporate sponsors.

The flexibility that comes with being a small, grass-roots organization allows Cops Care to provide quick aid to families within just a few days.

``The fact that I can contact Brian directly and say, `This family needs help with this PG&E bill' and in the next couple days he can just bring the check himself, that alleviates a lot of stress for the families,'' Velasquez said. ``Brian understands on a deeper level than anyone else because he's been through it.''

The Fantasy Flight event aims to provide a memorable Christmas experience for sick children whose families are so financially stressed that they cannot afford presents. The $15,000 extravaganza is paid for through donations.

Cops Care invites children being treated for life-threatening illnesses at local hospitals and buses them to the event along with their families. Snow machines create a North Pole-like atmosphere to greet them as they arrive to enjoy food, games and bounce houses.

There's a gift for each child, and their families get donations to buy presents and enjoy a Christmas dinner. A photographer on the police force takes the kids' pictures with Santa as a keepsake.

``The main focus of the event is to have them completely get their minds off everything,'' Simuro said. ``Unfortunately there are a lot of terminally ill children. But our motto is we treat the soul while the hospital treats the illness. We make them as comfortable as possible while they're going through what they're going through.''

Roy and Sandra Reynolds of Salinas said that although their 5-year-old granddaughter Yesenia Peguero lost her battle with cancer Nov. 4, the foundation helped fill her last moments with cheer.

``It was hard for us at Christmas, being in the hospital,'' Sandra Reynolds, 42, recalled. ``She was always asking, `Is Santa going to come?' ''

But Yesenia lit up with a smile when Cops Care brought Winnie the Pooh toys to her at the hospital, Reynolds said. Before she died, the cops also arranged trips for her to Six Flags Marine World and Disney on Ice shows.

``They've been great to my grandbaby,'' Roy Reynolds, 48, said. ``I believe 110 percent that they put a lot of happiness in my granddaughter's life. You never know what's going to come up in life, but it's nice to know no that no matter how bad things get, there are people out there who will try to make the best of what you got.''