Wishing for a hero
By LEE PROCIDA
Cherry Hill Sun
11/21/2007

Cherry Hill man’s Web site matches wish makers with wish fulfillers this holiday season

With the peak of holiday shopping approaching, millions of shoppers will flock to e-commerce Web sites to check off their wish lists. However, some less fortunate people will be logging on to ask for help this holiday season, trying to find a hero willing to be their pseudo-Santa Clause. These people don’t need e-commerce – they need e-compassion.

Enter WishUponAHero.com, a new Web site created by Cherry Hill resident Dave Gergenti that connects people who have wishes with people who want to fulfill them. Users sign on and register for free, and then can post any wishes they have. Users can then view those wishes and, if they choose to be a hero, contact the wishers and grant their wishes.

“People contact me and say, ‘I love this site. I want to help people. How can I help people?’” Gergenti says.

Since its official launch at the end of September, nearly 3,000 members joined – probably more by the time you read this – from 40 countries and 50 states. There are nearly 3,000 wishes, with more than 700 granted.

One family who lost their home in the California wildfires found help from a church group in Nebraska that helped pay for an apartment. There was a South Jersey man who bought Hannah Montana tickets for a girl and her sister with Down syndrome. One of the first wishes granted was for an Iraq War veteran to get LASIK eye surgery after losing his contacts in a sandstorm. Someone saw the wish on the site, then called around to eye surgeons in the area, eventually finding one who would perform the procedure for free in order to grant the soldier’s wish.

Last week, teachers from Johnson Elementary School delivered new clothes for the six children of a mother in Runnemede. After the woman’s youngest son was born without a limb, doctor’s bills took the place of most presents, and she said she could only afford a few toys for her children.

“I would like for them to know that clothes come new,” the woman wrote on her post, “even if it’s just for once. Not from the thrift store or the neighbor.”

Jackie Thompson was one of the teachers at Johnson to buy the new clothes, and she was in charge of finding a wish to grant after the teachers decided to work together and be heroes.

“It’s so difficult to pick (a wish),” she said. “I think it was the sincerity of her wish and that she wasn’t just on there wishing, but was granting other people’s wishes too.

“It shows you don’t have to have a lot to be hero.”

For the holiday season, the site is asking users to vote on their favorite wishes, and the top five most voted for wishes each receive a $100 Visa Gift Card. But Gergenti says it’s not only to get the top wishers some extra cash, because even if some wishes don’t win, he hopes users will grant their wishes anyway.

“It’s aimed to boost interactivity between members and get a look at everyone’s wish,” Gergenti says.

“It’s interesting to see what wishes tug at the heartstrings of the people.”

The site’s trademarked slogan is “Everyone can help anyone,” reflecting the inspiration for Gergenti’s dream. In the wake of disasters such as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, suddenly large swaths of people had tremendous need, while other citizens across the country were willing to help. “Wish Upon A Hero” was designed to connect those two groups instantly.

Gergenti is a creative director at the CramerSweeney ad agency in Mount Laurel, and utilizing his graphic design skills, he built and designed the Web site. He says his boss and coworkers were key in helping him get the site started, since he says the site itself has become full time.

Wish Upon a Hero is as much an original example of the terrific possibilities in new media as it is a product of the technology’s growth.

To promote the site, Gergenti created user groups on MySpace and Facebook, put a video on YouTube, and sent emails to people looking for help on Craigslist. They recently had to buy a bigger server because of all the traffic, which is paid for through advertisements on the site from Google.

Gergenti says the next step is to create a forum to further foster Wish Upon A Hero’s feeling of community, one that already has dedicated members.

The site has Wish Ambassadors all over the world, who routinely check the site for wishes and then work to find how they can facilitate the granting of those wishes.

“I’m sure we’ll (grant a wish again),” Thompson said of herself and the teachers at Johnson Elementary. “I go on the site every day.”

As for Gergenti, his first wish was granted last week when the Web site was featured on Channel 6 News. His next is for a Wish Upon A Hero tour bus.

“I need to get the word out,” he says. “People generally want to help.

“There’s thousands of Christmas wishes out there, and we’re trying to get as many of those granted as possible.”