Story written, published and © Copyright 2005 by The Westborough News on townonline.com.

In order to fulfill the wishes of hundreds of children in Westborough this holiday season, four churches have joined forces in support of the annual "Giving Tree" program that for 25 years has fallen under the auspices of St. Luke's the Evangelist Church.
          The program expanded beyond the church's doors last year to involve the Unitarian Universalist Congregationalist Society and Evangelical Congregational Church. Through the efforts of parishioners at those churches, 1,300 gifts went to 91 Westborough families in need.
          The need continues to climb, especially as it becomes more expensive to live and work in Westborough, said Pat Gagnon, St. Luke's outreach coordinator who has seen the number of requests for gifts nearly double since she took over the Giving Tree program five years ago.
          Backed by the success of last year's program, the churches this year agreed to rename the program to better reflect the joint effort of the Interfaith Association. Now called the Westborough Interfaith Giving Tree, Gagnon expects to hand out some 1,400 gifts this year to around 92 families. The number of families will likely grow as Christmas approaches.
          The First United Methodist Church is joining the three churches to help this year's effort, as is the Newcomers Club, Westborough business Data Vantage and students from Westborough High School's Student Council.
          While the tags went up on the trees at each church last weekend and each person who took a tag is asked to bring a gift back by Dec. 10-11, Gagnon says there are always last-minute needs that can sometimes be a challenge to fulfill without the help of gift certificates or cash donations. Such donations are used to buy gifts for children whose tag wishes go unfulfilled after the giving tree campaign ends.
          That's why the Westborough News kicks off its Gifts of Hope fund-raising campaign - a campaign Community Newspaper Company has been running for the past 13 years to help raise money for local charities - this holiday season in support of the Interfaith Association's Giving Tree program.  [continue]