December 31, 2008 > Hard-working executives play for Family Giving Tree Hard-working executives play for Family Giving Tree By Meenu Gupta Photos By Courtesy of Julie Davis Berry At the Family Giving Tree the real frenzy begins around the holiday season. This season, over 50,000 low income children received gifts and clothing through the Family Giving Tree's Holiday Wish Drive. The Executive Elf Challenge is hosted to share the holiday spirit amongst the executives of the FGT host companies while helping the needy. Silicon Valley executives forget their work and become Santa. CEO's and executives were in Santa hats sorting, competing and laughing in a fun competitive environment. The Family Giving Tree's warehouse was brimming with gifts on December 19. "The event was very successful and everyone approximately 200 employees from companies all over the Bay Area had so much fun. NBC-11 news anchor Lisa Kim auctioned herself off to the teams as a team member and NetApps paid $10,000 to have her on their team," said Julie Davis Berry, Director of National Expansion Elf. "We had three plus challenges: Wrapping Race, they worked so hard and fast on this. Gingerbread House Contest was messy and Tricycle Race was a lot more fun than people thought it would be." A 19 year-old non-profit organization which helps children in need in the Bay Area, Family Giving Tree has donated more than 600,000 holiday gifts to low-income children over the years. "And there were several CEO's who attended the event, so while the tallies were being counted to announce a 'winner' the employees 'wrapped' their CEO's," said Berry. Wells Fargo Employees took first place in the challenge with Cisco coming in a close second. "It was a great event and everyone had a lot of fun," said Queen Elf and Family Giving Tree CEO Jennifer Cullenbine. "We enjoy seeing our hard-working hosts enjoy themselves."