Tis’ the season of giving, and the students of Wenatchee High School are caught up in the rush of Christmas. At Wenatchee High, the ASB has reinstated Winter Wishes, and so far it is going great, with requests for 1,378 wishes turned in.

To really bring around the spirit of giving, the ASB has started a Giving Tree for the first time, to help supplement the Winter Wishes program. The Giving Tree is set up in the Wenatchee High School commons, and has two snowflakes for each student who submitted a wish. Any student or staff member can pick up a white snowflake, leaving the red one, and grant the wish on the snowflake. All the wishes are numbered, in order to keep the identities of the students submitting the wish anonymous.

“The Giving Tree is just a way to give students a way to give to each other, and spread the spirit [of Christmas],” senior ASB Video Coordinator Analise Nelson said.

“I thought it (the Giving Tree) would be in the spirit of the season. It makes people happy to give,” sophomore class president Alex Sinay-Smith said. “I think it is going really well, so far. We’ve already had 40-50 gifts turned in, which is more than we expected.”

Last year, the ASB did not do Winter Wishes, so this year it had a nice comeback after its year off. This is only the third total year that Winter Wishes has been a part of wintertime at Wenatchee High School, and according to ASB adviser Brent Grothe, this year is the most organized Winter Wishes has ever been.

“It (Winter Wishes) is going great. Students have contributed a lot through the Giving Tree,” Grothe said.

Staff and students agree that this year, Winter Wishes has been a more prominent member of the winter season in the school.

“This is the best publicized Winter Wishes has ever been,” WHS Business teacher Meg Lovercamp said. “It (Winter Wishes) seemed like it was new, and at first I thought it was supposed to replace Christmas baskets. I like the idea of students meeting students’ needs.”

“I think Winter Wishes was more organized this year than in past years. I think its a really cute idea to get students involved with each other,” senior Sierra Hedding said.

Of the 1,378 wishes requested, 200 will be granted for students, including the wishes on the Giving Tree, which make up around 100 of the wishes. The 200 wishes which will be granted were decided through a process of picking needs over wants, then figuring how much money the ASB had to spend on Winter Wishes through the donations they received.

“I think Winter Wishes is going better than anyone expected,” Nelson said.

The wishes will be granted during the assembly on Dec. 19, the last day before break.