Nominees sought for 2023 Book of Dreams, our annual giving campaign

Sacramento Bee
·2 min read

You can help victims of fires. You can find homes for dogs. Or you can even try to make it snow.

Actually, you did that and more last year in providing donations to Book of Dreams, our annual charity effort during the holiday season. For more than three decades — we’re entering our 36th year — we have presented stories about wish lists of those in need, the people and organizations who could use a helping hand or who wish to extend one to others. These are the “dreams.” They are requests for specific items that can provide an overall sense of well being, peace and joy.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas we publish 10 stories about those requests, with their price tags, and ask you to tap into your generous spirit to help. Last year we raised more than $114,000 in donations to help build an aviary at Effie Yeaw Nature Center, provide support for those with MS and bring a taste of home, with appropriate clothing, to Ukranian refugees. They wanted snow.

We start now, launching in the fall before the turkeys cook in the ovens, before the lights decorate your homes and while you’re always wishing for a better world. So we ask you to get into the spirit of giving by nominating those share those wishes but not the means. You can make their dreams yours, too.

We’re asking for nominations; you will find the form at the bottom of this story. Please use the form to nominate an individual, family or nonprofit organization. They are due by Friday, Oct. 27. Finalists will be notified by mid-November.

We will review your requests, write stories about those we select and, through our stories, hope to stir your generous spirit. That means, if chosen by The Bee, nominees must be willing to be featured in a story and photographed for the Book of Dreams. The Bee coordinates this effort with the Sacramento Region Community Foundation.

Although the Book of Dreams does not approve requests for housing, cars, trips or cash, no dream is too large or too small if it makes a difference in someone’s life. No, we really can’t open the sky and make it snow. But you can part clouds of despair and seed ones of hope.