Winter wishes near Tacoma

The News Tribune of Tacoma, Wash., reported this week about a great project at Bethel High School, located in the Pierce County town of Spanaway. The students have organized something truly special -- they grant wishes for students at their school, just in time to brighten a holiday for those who might not have much to enjoy this time of year as their friends get new clothes or cars.

The paper reports:

Making wishes come true
With no budget, Bethel students fulfill requests for others

By Tara M. Manthey

Let 1,510 teens make a wish for someone else and you can expect 64 requests for a yearbook.

At Bethel High School, you’ll see yearnings for 14 iPods, seven letterman’s jackets, six cars and three months of unlimited tanning.

But you can also expect a plea for a surgery, clothing for babies, a bigger house for a needy family.

Sean Warner wants his brother to survive a fight with cancer. David Harbison wants money to help his grandmother in Korea. Kayla Yuill wants classmate Michelle Swails to visit her father’s grave in Florida.

Every year the 30 students of Bethel High’s leadership class have a month to fulfill as many requests as possible for the Winter Wishes assembly. It started five years ago with kids making wishes for themselves that were answered with mostly gag gifts and small favors.

As more wishes were granted, students took the task more seriously. The wishes became more earnest, and many were pleas for help.

This year, the Spanaway kids had to make a wish for someone else. With no budget and hundreds of requests, the leadership class sorted out the possible from the impossible. Then they picked a few of the latter and tried their hardest.

At a time when teens are maligned for being shallow, for being selfish, these kids show they have something more to offer. They just want to get something done for their friends. Whether it was a fun "snowfall" or a new bed or a letterman's jacket, it was a small gesture -- usually a request from a friend, sibling or teacher -- that made someone else happy. It all culminated in an assembly where the wishes were granted.

In Wenatchee, teens spent an hour Tuesday attending an assembly -- the "Christmas Basket" Assembly. Apparently organized around the need to have a representative from the local PUD employees' union thank the students for organizing donations for Christmas Baskets for needy families (the union donates the turkeys for baskets), the assembly droned on for about 50 minutes with inanities.

Sure, the assembly went off mostly without problems. It was nice to listen to the kids sing or to see them dance. Even the framing sequence was decently portrayed. But the point where I started questioning the purpose was the long dance number with three very tall teachers sancing to the "Sugarplum Fairies" song and a smaller teacher looking even more diminutive. This lasted several minutes. And I thought to myself, "Why, exactly, are we here?"

When I read the story above, reprinted in the local paper today, I thought the efforts of the students at Bethel High were closer to what student leaders could be doing with their time and abilities. The hour would be a lot better spent. And the PUD employee representative could still come on to say how the donations had helped grant some other winter wishesn for needy people in the community.

I'm amazed at the willingness of people to give to others. I also know how much a small gift means to people -- sometimes just a little boost can be all someone needs to make it.

It would be great to see the local effort revamped based on the Bethel model. That would be my wish.

-- Wenatchee, Wash.