WISH LIST $100: 2 days of perishable food or linens for 4 baby layettes; $500: 2 heavy-duty hand trucks for the warehouse; $1,000: 100 backpacks filled with donated school supplies.

ECHO is all about meeting basic needs: food, clothing, essential housewares, financial assistance – the kinds of things you just can’t do without. So help might be five changes of clothing, a payment that keeps the lights on, staple foods for a family (with coupons for fruits and vegetables), and essential prescriptions. ECHO also sponsors a Meals-on-Wheels route, a holiday food and gift plan, a school supplies program, and transportation to medical appointments for seniors. Everything contributed to this enterprising, and frugal, organization is put to use – or if it can’t be used, it is sold; even frayed blankets are sent on to animal shelters. As the primary organization serving basic needs in the Fairfax communities of Springfield and Burke, ECHO is an example of community philanthropy at its best: businesses and civic groups, 24 congregations, and 360 individual volunteers work together to bring sustenance to those in need. ECHO is people helping people – and for most of Echo’s clients there is, simply, nobody else. Won’t you reach out and help, too?

Pat Gauthier, Executive Director 7205 Old Keene Mill Road Springfield, VA 22150 703 569 7972 www.echo-inc.org