A Story about anonymously helping a foster child. Hundreds responded by granting other foster kids’ wishes
Her small nonprofit, One Simple Wish, was in the middle of a storm — in a good way. The site posts requests from current and former kids in foster care across the country, and anyone can sign on and grant the wishes, such as clothes, athletic equipment and school supplies.
All of a sudden on June 22, hundreds of the wishes had been granted seemingly all at once, and dozens of people were asking whether they could do more.
Helping a foster child
“I was baffled — I couldn’t figure out what was going on,” said Gletow, 43, whose organization works with nearly 2,000 foster care caseworkers, social services agencies and charities that post wishes through One Simple Wish.
“So many people went to our website that morning that it finally just crashed and we had to redirect the traffic,” said Gletow, who lives in Ewing, N.J.
Gletow soon learned that people were flocking to her site because of a comment on the social media site Reddit. A user had left a post on the AskReddit page: “What is something you’ve done purely out of the goodness of your heart, but have never told anyone?”
One of the responses was: “I went to the web site: onesimplewish.org which specializes in providing foster kids with things they wouldn’t ordinarily get,” wrote the commenter, whose Reddit name is dartdoug.
“An 11-year-old was asking for a bike for his birthday, but his foster family couldn’t afford to buy him one,” his comment continued. “For less than $200, I paid for the kid’s new bike.”
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