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Published Sunday, November 23, 2003, in the San Jose Mercury News
Legacy
of giving
PERSONAL
STORIES MAKE A CONNECTION
By David E. Early
at the start of the holiday
season in 1983, an electric idea was zapping through the newsroom
at the San Jose Mercury News. What if we published a ``Wish Book''
full of stories about needy people and organizations in our community?
Would readers send in donations to make those wishes come true?
Oh yes, they would.
Today, we're celebrating 20 years of a simple project that gives
readers a magical way to help people they've never met. In two decades,
you've channeled more than $4.3 million into Bay Area needs. Thousands
of personal and institutional dreams have been realized.
That first Wish Book made its debut in December 1983. In an astonishing
five weeks, more than $60,000 flowed in mostly from piggy banks
and penny drives and via modest checks from folks who didn't have
much themselves.
Not only were all the wishes fulfilled, but the extra funds --
the final tally was $71,881.04 -- were also distributed to spread
the goodwill even more.
``By reading all the different stories in the Wish Book, people
can really feel what the needs are in this valley where there is
so much wealth,'' said Norma Preciado Burton, donor-relations manager
for Sacred Heart Community Services in San Jose. ``I am always so
touched by the generosity of people in this community who gave so
much to our families during the good times, and even now, when times
are hard.''
Partners in project
Over the years, we've asked more than 600 social service agencies
to nominate kids, adults and families -- good folks with dreams
and wishes. We also asked the organizations what they needed to
better deliver their services to the community.
The Wish Book concept had its genesis at the Miami Herald, another
paper in the Knight Ridder newspaper group. The Herald found its
first effort was difficult, time-intensive and costly.
And yet, the bottom-line report from Florida was glowing. The paper
reported that the effort lovingly touched the community in wonderful
ways.
The first Mercury News edition also met some bumps along the way.
But here, too, the response from readers was so strong and the warm
feeling of fulfilling all those wishes so rewarding that we understood
what first Wish Book editor Iris Frost had been saying from the
start.
``If the Wish Book is done right, we will help so many people it
will become the finest thing any of us ever do in journalism,''
said Frost, who would later take the idea to the San Francisco Chronicle
and turn it into its successful ``Season of Sharing.''
Donations grow
In 1987, readers embraced the idea of buying teddy bears for Myesha
and Alesha Williams, the 4-year-old twins from East Palo Alto who
watched their mom die in a traffic accident. They flocked to buy
school clothes and blankets in 1997 for the four children of Hai
and Le Nguyen, and to purchase a new wheelchair in 1983 for Rusty,
a physically and mentally challenged young man with spastic quadriplegia.
As each edition rolled around, the Wish Book generated impressive
donations: $176,000 in 1989 to $462,148 in 1999. Reporters, photographers
and designers lined up to volunteer.
``One reason the Wish Book is such a fine idea is that the caring
effort that goes into it shows through,'' wrote former executive
editor Bob Ingle. ``And I'm sure the readers can feel it.''
Feel it they did. Groups banded together -- unions, teachers, nurses,
students, neighborhood and workplace groups -- to organize Wish
Book drives. The Silicon Valley boom generated mega-donations from
individuals and corporations that helped raise $1.8 million in the
last five years alone.
Readers made donations to purchase bikes or wheelchairs for the
people they read about. Sports uniforms and clothing for work. Thermal
underwear for homeless adults. ``Jammies'' and jackets for homeless
kids. Plane tickets. Physical therapy. Cribs. College courses. Blankets
and scholarships to summer camp. Sometimes major items -- trucks,
computers, vans, industrial stoves and refrigerators -- gave expansive
new life to organizations that served thousands.
``There are all different stories for all different hearts,'' Preciado
Burton said. ``Everybody can find something in there they are touched
by.''
Individual stories
And every so often there were touching profiles in courage, such
as the story of 8-year-old Jessica Lopez, who'd battled leukemia
since she was 18 months old. Chemotherapy had taken her long brown
tresses, but she was always a smiling comet of inspiration to those
who met her. She delighted in a trip to Disneyland -- made possible
by readers of the 1988 Wish Book -- even while a plastic catheter
was poking through her chest wall. Jessica died in June 1990 in
her sleep.
Rodney Clark, executive director of Shelter Against Violent Environments
in Fremont, says the Wish Book creates an emotional connection.
``I want the people who give to the Wish Book to know that they
have made a big difference in the lives of the families and kids
we serve,'' said Clark of the agency that helps victims of domestic
abuse. ``The pictures and the stories bring reality close to home
and allow average people to say, `This could have been me.' People
connect with people, which is why they love the Wish Book.''
“Wish Book: Legacy of Giving”
Photography by Richard Koci Hernandez.
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