Dave Girgenti, Founder/Executive Director

Dave Girgenti is the Founder of Wish Upon A Hero, the world’s largest social helping website. The site is designed to allow anyone the unique opportunity to post a wish as well as the extraordinary ability for everyone to be a hero by granting a wish. Wishes range from basic necessities to impossible dreams.

As a way to help more people, Dave established the Wish Upon A Hero Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in June of 2008.

Brooke Schostak, Director of Development

Brooke has always been passionate about helping people. During her college years, she donated a small sample of blood at a bone marrow drive. Ten years later Brooke received a phone call from the registry with news that she may be a match for someone requiring a stem cell transplant. After considering what would be involved, she decided to go ahead with it. Brooke didn’t know to whom her stem cells would be going; all she knew was that it was for someone suffering with Leukemia. Once the donation was made, she and the recipient were allowed to communicate. It turned out that Brooke’s stem cells granted a few more months of life to a 14 year old boy living in California. The letters she received from the boy’s family were filled with endless gratitude and thanks. This experience had a profound effect on Brooke.
 
This past January, Brooke happened to read about Wish Upon A Hero’s founder Dave Girgenti in the Courier Post. Dave was being named a great New Jerseyan by Governor Christie for having established this wonderful charitable organization. Brooke found that Wish Upon A Hero is doing everything that she wanted to do, namely allowing those in need to post their wishes online and find help immediately from heroes all over the country and the world!
 
Brooke comes to the Wish Upon A Hero Foundation after having successfully worked in fundraising for a private academy in Southern NJ as well as the world of residential real estate. Brooke is excited to be working on all aspects of fundraising for the Wish Upon A Hero Foundation.

Catherine Ryan Hyde

Author of the novel Pay it Forward. The book has been translated into 20 languages for publication in more than 30 countries, and chosen among the Best Books for Young Adults 2001 by the American Library Association. The movie, Pay It Forward, was released in 2000, starring Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt. She is founder and president of the Pay It Forward Foundation. As a professional public speaker she has addressed the National Conference on Education, twice spoken at Cornell University, met with Americorps members at the White House and shared a dais with Bill Clinton.