BEST GIFTS FOR GRADS
ENCOURAGE THEIR DREAMS AND GOALS

For Immediate Release

Contact: Brian Puppa, e-mail or call (905) 640-8914

APRIL 15, 2010 / Legacy Project / – From college to kindergarten, millions of graduates will march single file
this Spring, with family and friends looking on. What's
the best gift you can give to mark this life milestone? Susan V. Bosak, who heads the national Legacy Project at www.legacyproject.org, believes that the most memorable, meaningful gifts are those that encourage a graduate's dreams and goals. She offers creative twists on the standard gift ideas.

Graduation, especially from high school and college, represents the achievement of one goal and the start of a new one. Concrete goals, and your ability to execute a plan to achieve them, play a big part in your life success. The most valuable gift any graduate can receive is the support from family and friends so essential to moving forward, going after dreams, and achieving them.

Bosak cites work done by researchers at Florida State University who looked at data following 12,000 young people from the time they were teenagers. The research determined that young people with the skills and support to set and achieve goals had "more ambitious career plans, more stable plans in young adulthood, and greater educational and occupational achievements by midlife."

"So," says Bosak, "forget the pen or briefcase. Mark the graduation milestone by giving a creative gift that speaks to the dream, that recognizes who the graduate is and where they're going."

Bosak runs LifeDreams workshops across the country as part of the Legacy Project. She feels we underestimate how important milestones like graduation can be.

"For young children, a graduation is a chance to develop self-esteem and belief in your ability to achieve something," says Bosak. "For the high school and college grad, it's a chance to look back proudly with a sense of accomplishment and then forward with excitement toward bigger life dreams."

The best graduation gifts should encourage a graduate's dreams, with one eye on the past and the other on the future. They should have emotional value, and be useful and lasting. Many graduates may have big-ticket items in mind. Remember that meaningful is best, and that you also need to stick to what you can afford. Give what you can to help a graduate with what they need to achieve their goals.

Bosak suggests these ideas for graduates of all ages:

• Design a personal diploma to go with the institutional one. Use evocative phrases, favorite quotations, and family photos to illustrate the graduate's past achievements and future goals. Frame it.
  
  
• If you decide to give money, make it meaningful. Give a sum of money accompanied with a fake
  $1 million bill as a wish for future riches and a financial book with practical advice on saving and investing. The money you give can also be designated for a specific purpose related to the graduate's dreams, like travel or tuition.
  
  
• You can go high-tech by giving a laptop fully loaded with software to help graduates do the planning and research essential to achieving dreams, or an iPod loaded with dream-themed music they can use for inspiration and motivation.
  
  
• For young children, start a family graduation tradition. At the end of each school year, write a letter with your child about what happened during the past year, special memories, successes, and failures with lessons learned. Save all the letters and present them to your child when they graduate from high school or college.
  
  
• Create a series of scrapbooks, each reflecting one stage of the graduate's life – infant, toddler, child, teen, and young adult. Include memories, thoughts and feelings, and photos. The last scrapbook should have your good wishes for the future on the first page, with the remaining pages left blank to represent all the possibilities ahead.
  
  
• Put together a dream kit of items related to a graduate's dreams. If they want to travel, give a set of luggage, a compass to help them always find their way, travel books, and perhaps airline tickets or a European train pass.
  
  
• Cut wishing stars from colored paper. Each can include a personal thought or quotation. Fill a special keepsake box or jar so that a graduate can pull out a wishing star when they need inspiration.
  
  

Finally, children's books are a good choice for a graduation gift because they're lasting, often beautifully produced, and concisely capture an inspiring message.

Bosak's book Dream: A Tale of Wonder, Wisdom & Wishes (TCP Press, hardcover, full color, $17.95) is a popular gift to encourage a graduate's dreams and goals. In the same vein as the Dr. Seuss book Oh, The Places You'll Go!, Dream is a book for all ages. It's a one-of-a-kind collaboration that combines remarkable artwork from
15 top illustrators, inspiring quotations from historical sages, and a beautifully told poetic story about hopes and dreams across a lifetime. The book has won
11 national awards, including the Pinnacle Award as
Best Gift Book.

Dream by Susan V. Bosak is available in bookstores across the country. For more information and creative, meaningful grad gift ideas specifically for elementary school, high school, and college or university, visit www.legacyproject.org.

To receive a REVIEW COPY of the book Dream or to schedule an INTERVIEW with Susan Bosak, contact Brian Puppa by e-mail or call (905) 640-8914

A meaningful grad gift – featured in the children's section of bookstores

"A dazzling book
that challenges us to find a dream and follow it."
Bloomsbury Review

"A book you can pin
a dream on!... A worthy rival to Oh, the Places You'll Go! as a favorite gift book."
CM Review

"Inspirational... Beautifully produced."
Publishers Weekly

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