Discover a new "Hope in Giving" this season by thinking differently about those cards you give every year. By paying a little extra money, you'll spread some holiday cheer by contributing to saving lives.

Every so often, something comes along so perfect you have to tell the world about it:
Free refills. No ATM fees. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

And as is the case with perfection, it is of course relative.

But I discovered something perfect, and I'm here, prattling away on the keyboard, to tell you about something so spot on, it could impact your holiday as it has mine.

It's called Hope In Giving. And we here at CoolPeopleCare.org have been fortunate to partner with this fundraising effort this Christmas, hosting information online and connecting would-be givers with those who will gladly accept their donations.

The donations are in the form of US Dollars, and the return is immeasurable. Well, it's partly immeasurable, and partly very measurable.

For every $100 you donate (100% of which goes directly to the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York) you receive a set of five holiday greeting cards adorned with original artwork from five different artists (the original paintings are also up for auction for those with a bare patch on their wall).

That's the measurable part. The immeasurable part is the lives your donation will touch - the lives of children living with cancer and the families supporting and loving them.

And now on to the perfect part of the equation.

Every Christmas my wife and daughter and I travel to meet the rest of my immediate family somewhere far from our homes. For that reason, a giving tradition was born out of necessity. The tradition of the "flat gift" started some years ago (for the sake of suitcase space) and since its inception, we've exchanged CDs, pictures, calendars, hand-painted canvases, handmade placemats and more. And this year we'll add to it these "Hope in Giving" cards (shhhhhhh, don't tell my siblings - I want it to be a surprise.)

But the convenience of this gift alone isn't enough for me to label it perfect.

We'll give the cards this year in memory of my mother who died of cancer 11 years ago. And that is not a sad thing. That is not a downer.

Rather, passing along these cards truly will be a chance to celebrate an amazing life, and though we don't need a specific reason to remember and honor that life, a little reminder every now and then can't hurt.

Our hope in giving this year is that this fundraiser raises a lot of money. Our hope is that the money makes a real difference. Our hope is that the difference money can make, along with the dedication of doctors and researchers, is more than enough to make a difference in the lives of children living with this dreadful disease.

And for us, that makes our hope perfect.

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Ingredients:

• Money
• Holiday Spirit
• Not-so-ordinary Christmas cards

Caring Time:

• 10 minutes (plus giving time)

Cost:

• $100 and up

Results:

• Hope for others
• Hope for a cure
• Hope for the future
• Hope for families you'll never meet