Kettering Health Network staff will track Santa’s travels at the Network Operations Command Center (NOCC) beginning Christmas Eve, well before Santa is scheduled to deliver presents in southwest Ohio.

Staff will begin tracking Santa as he delivers presents throughout the world on December 24 at 5 a.m. using NORAD’s Santa Tracker. At 6:30 p.m., children of NOCC staff will be invited into the command center to watch Santa on two large screens as he makes his way around the world in his sleigh.

“This is our first Christmas in the new Network Operations Command Center,” says Dereck Pristas, president of Kettering Mobile Care. “We thought it would be a fun way to celebrate the holidays for our staff and their families. We launch helicopters from the NOCC, so we want to make sure everyone, including Santa, stays safe in the airspace in and around Dayton.

The first of its kind in the Dayton area and the largest in the U.S., the 17,000-square-foot NASA-like command center is designed to more efficiently care for patients and get them to the most appropriate level of care in the least amount of time.

The command center is located on the first floor of 1050 Forrer Blvd. in Kettering.