With a cool new gadget or “must-have” toy coming out every holiday season, how can we go about teaching our kids the importance of giving back? Project Good Gift from Children’s Hospital Boston is one such program that aims to help parents in this consumer-driven culture.

Project Good Gift (www.generationcures.org/goodgift) lets kids be heroes by “giving it up” for other kids. With Project Good Gift, kids choose to give up receiving a holiday gift — like a game or a toy — and ask family and friends to make a donation to Generation Cures in place of their present. The really exciting thing about Project Good Gift is that it is not the typical holiday giving campaign designed for adults. Project Good Gift puts kids in the driver’s seat. They get to make the decision to give, and take lead to encourage the adults around them to make a difference in the lives of other kids. In the process, they learn that giving can be just as great as receiving.

All funds raised will be used to advance the life-saving research efforts of doctors and scientists at Children’s Hospital Boston. As one of the top Children’s hospitals in the nation and across the globe, the doctors and scientists at Children’s Hospital Boston are working every day to explore new cures and treatments for sick kids all over the world. However only a small fraction of our national research funding is allocated to pediatric illnesses. There simply isn’t enough funding to find cures and better therapies for suffering children. Generation Cures was founded to make a dramatic difference.

So what is Generation Cures? It’s a web-based philanthropic community from Children’s Hospital Boston built especially for tweens (ages 8-12) and their parents, providing safe access to original content that teaches kids about the power of caring, compassion and giving. Oh, and it’s free! Check it out at www.generationcures.org