BY KAREN BOSSICK

Have you been scratching your head over what to give someone who has everything?

Perhaps you might want to consider a last-minute Wow Students gift card in the receiver’s name.

Wow Students are offering the gift cards at www.wow-students.org. The giver determines the amount and the receiver determines which of more than 40 nonprofits in Blaine County to give the card to.

“This is not only a great way to experience generosity but also to learn about the organizations that affect our community every day,” said Whitney Slade. “A hundred percent of the gift card sales are donated to the Blaine County nonprofits.”

Wow Students is a nonprofit organization created with the help of 32 investors to teach some 4,000 Blaine County youth in kindergarten through  12^th grade the value of philanthropy. The hope is that doing so will create a stronger, more vibrant community.

The Wow Students organization endows each class in the Wood River Valley with philanthropic dollars that the students designate towards a charity of their choice. The students then follow up their monetary donations by helping those organizations hands-on.

So far, students have given $210,000 generosity dollars and racked up 30,000 service hours.

Generosity experiences have ranged from building dog houses for the Animal Shelter, tagging fish with Trout Unlimited, assisting the Sawtooth Botanical Garden with planting, packing overnight bags for The Advocates, helping out at Swiftsure Ranch Therapeutic Equestrian Center and helping seniors at The Connection.

Founder Morley Golden said he and his cohorts are always looking for fresh ways to spread and teach generosity to the younger generation.

“We believe that allowing them to scan through and select an organization they are interested in will not only foster generosity but, hopefully, encourage an interest in and an understanding of the community around them,” he said.

HOW THE GIFT CARDS WORK:

To purchase a card, go to wow-students.org. Select “Buy Generosity Gift Certificates.” Determine the gift amount and quantity of certificates. Check out and follow instructions to type in the recipient’s name and a personal message, if you wish. Email the generosity certificate to the recipient or print it out.

Upon receiving the gift certificate, the recipient then visits wow-students.org to redeem the voucher.