Back in November, before leaving town for a weekend, Nicole Helprin and her two kids wrote a few wishes on tags and hung them on a tree in front of their Portland, Ore., home, KGW reported. When Helprin got back, the tree was covered with tags bearing wishes from the community.

"The Wishing Tree," which is still getting filled with wishes months later, is set up with a sign, clipboard, markers and a plastic bag of shipping labels so that passersby can contribute. Helprin says she got the idea from San Francisco-based blog, Superhero Journal.

She usually lets the tags -- which contain everything from wishes for a cure for cancer to a desire to meet a mermaid -- hang on the tree until they crumble or blow away.

"There's a kind of a diaspora of wishes blowing around the neighborhood," Helprin's husband, Ted, told KGW.

Helprin's main wish for the tree is for it to bring happiness to the area.