Our local mall has a giving tree. The student council writes down some of the most requested gifts and present them to our school. In turn our students and families then purchase the gifts and we place them under our school tree until time of delivery. Last year we collected over 136 gifts.

We do not adopt a family, but we do have "Sherwood Cares". The counselor and teachers select a few low income families and give them gift certificates to Wal-mart or Safeway. Some of our PTO money goes to this cause.

No, I'm afraid not.

Although I'm sure the site is well intentioned and benefits many - there's no vetting done.

If I read it correctly, people simply create a profile and list their "wishes" - anything from Christmas tree ornaments to funds for surgery. That's a pretty wide scope of needs. And there's no way to tell if the needs are "real". The entire profile could simply be a scam, as is always the problem on the Internet. I also don't see how anyone donating could declare it as a tax deduction.

Social networking and collaboration is the next big wave of Web 2.0, so on a personal level, people may be interested in registered and exploring the site and selecting someone to hep.

However at the organizational level, if one of my organizations (PTO, work, school) adopted a family, it would work with a local 501(c)(3) or government entity or school officials - but definitely someone within our community.

If it were a registry of some sort, credibility would be important - knowing the stories are true, and ideally having your donation be tax deductable. For example, The Children's Organ Transplant Association (COTA) is one I support. It's 501c3 and also affiliated with United Way. For COTA, the cases listed are fully vetted, the donation process is managed, and if a child is lost before the funds are used, the funds are reallocated.

I know this a different scenario than Wish Upon a Hero, which is more an informal matching of needs rather than being an intermediary. But our organization would want the more formal scenario.

Good Luck.

I guess my next question is: Would a school ever have interest in helping people from the Wish Upon A Hero site? The class could democratically select the wish they would like to grant and then work as a team. A sight like this is created to promote awareness. It also the direct results of helping someone and being recognized for helping someone.

Our PTO has since the first year, donate a $50 card to Wal-Mart for the person/family to use as needed. We have done a janitor who's wife was seriously ill (elderly) and in and out of the hospital and also had dinner from a very nice restaurant delivered for Christmas. We did another janitor another year that was having medical problems, a librarian whose family was on tuff times.

We do our donation, based on the principals thoughts. She knows everyone and their situations. We do not do the childrens' families. The donation is made discretely. No one knows except for the PTO memebers in attendance at that meeting and the principal.

Last year a school in out state had a fire that destroyed their library. We chose to donate the money towards their book fund.

Our school adopts a family through the community resource center. This is an organization that runs all year long to help families in need. Our families are very generous at Christmas to make sure our adopted family has a happy holiday. I too have inquired about adopting a family for the year, rather than the holiday. We are not able to do this through the resource center or another organization nearby because the families are not in the program for that long.

Maybe there is a way to adopt a family throughout the year. It's a wonderful thought.

~Kristi