🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <Fim14c3w165w@mindvox.phantom.com>,
Charles Berman <bureau@mindvox.phantom.com> wrote:
>Help make a child's wish come true.  Participate in a request that a 
>business card be sent to seven year old Craig Shergold who has a brain 
>tumor and little time to live.  Craig has turned to the Children's 
>Make-a-Wish Foundation and expressed his desire to have an entry in the 
>Guiness Book of World Records for the largest collection of business 
>cards received by an individual.

DON'T DO IT!

Read the following:
********************************************************************
Article 109013 of alt.folklore.urban:
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From: ab401@freenet.carleton.ca (Paul Tomblin)
Subject: Cr**g Sh*rg*ld
Message-ID: <ab401.758264931@freenet>
Sender: news@freenet.carleton.ca
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Organization: Tomblin Computer Consulting, Ottawa, Ontario
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 1994 05:08:51 GMT
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This was passed on by a friend.
Taken without permission from Nottingham Evening Post, 10 January 1994.
---------------------------CUT HERE--------------------------------

                   CRAIG'S IN A CLASS ALL OF HIS OWN

Record-breaker Craig Shergold gets so many letters through his door
every day his address is now classed as a county by the Post Office.

Five years ago Craig, 14, of Carshalton, Surrey, appealed to the nation
to send him get-well cards before he had a life-saving operation to
remove a brain tumour.

But despite appeals from Craig and his parents for the cards and letters
to stop they still keep on coming.

His father Ernie, 54, calculates Craig's mail sometimes totals more than
10,000 items a day. All Craig's letters go into their own sorting box -
normally used for mail for an entire county - at the local Post Office.

The family appealed to people to stop sending the cards when Craig
earned his place in the Guinness Book of Records in 1991 for receiving
more than 16 million get well cards.

But that was ignored and the family are now receiving sacks of chain
letters and business cards as well as letters from well-wishers.

Out-of-work lorry driver Ernie said: "We really appreciated all the get
well cards at the time and people's messages gave us a real boost, but
now they are threatening to take over and we want them to stop."

A team of volunteers helps sort the post, which comes from all over the
world. All the mail is opened in case they contain personal letters from
cancer suffers or money which goes straight to charity.


-- 
Paul Tomblin - snide Canadian.
Joel Furr can have my Vicki Robinson sig when he prys it from my cold, dead
fingers.


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From: andrewst@u.washington.edu (Andrew Steinberg)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: [DYING 7 YEAR OLD] wants buisness cards
Date: 14 Apr 1994 06:57:00 GMT
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                    The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

                               February 28, 1994

SECTION: FEATURES; Section E; Page 2

LENGTH: 992 words

HEADLINE: Peach Buzz TALK OF OUR TOWN

BYLINE: By Maureen Downey and Bo Shurling


 THOSE CARDS KEEP COMING AND COMING: At least once a week, we hear from an
Atlanta company collecting business cards for  Craig Shergold,  the seriously
ill British child who asked five years ago that people send him get-well 
cards. His case came to the attention of the Atlanta Children's Wish 
Foundation, and Craig received 70 million get-well cards. But somehow a 
chain letter was started that solicited business cards as well. And even
though Craig is now 14 and doing well, the business cards persist. Children's
Wish Foundation receives 50 to 100 calls a day about Craig, says the 
foundation's Christy Chappelear, adding, "What comes in now goes into the 
recycling bin once it's sorted."


                Copyright 1994 Plain Dealer Publishing Co.  
                                The Plain Dealer

                     February 8, 1994 Tuesday, FINAL / ALL

SECTION: METRO; Pg. 1B

LENGTH: 624 words

HEADLINE: STOP THOSE CARDS, LETTERS; PASS IT ON

 BODY:
   Our letter came from Midwest Solutions Inc.

   The Plain Dealer was one of 20 companies to get the letter from Midwest
Solutions, which was one of 20 companies to get the letter from Able/SS Inc.,
which was one of 20 companies to get the letter from Southeastern 
Equipment Co.,which was one of 20 companies to get the letter from the 
Lake County engineer's office, which was ... well, you get the picture.

   This is the letter:

  "We, along with other friends and businesses, have participated in a 
request that a business card be sent to Craig Sherold at the address 
below.  Craig is 7 years old and has a brain tumor. He has little time to 
live. Craig has turned tothe Children's Make-A-Wish Foundation with a 
desire to be entered in the Guinness Book of World Records for the 
largest collection of business cards received by an individual.

   "Please take the time to send the enclosed pages to another 20 offices of
your choice. This will only take a few minutes but will help a little boy's
dream come true!!

   "The address is: Craig Sherold, Children's Make-A-Wish Foundation, 3200
Perimeter Center East, Atlanta, Ga., 30346."

   Sad, huh? Poor little kid. Who could resist such a heartfelt plea?

   Actually, that's the problem. Nobody can.


   The cold truth of the matter is, there is no Craig Sherold in Atlanta, 
dying or otherwise. There isn't a Children's Make-A-Wish Foundation there 
either. And nobody down there wants any business cards from The Plain 
Dealer, Midwest Solutions, or anyone else.

"I compare this to 'Secrets,' that game we used to play in grade school 
where you'd whisper something in someone's ear and pass it on and by the 
time it got to the last person it was all different,' said Christy 
Chappelear, director of public relations for Children's Wish Foundation 
International in Atlanta.

   "We've heard about little Craig living everywhere from Atlanta to Zimbabwe
and collecting get-well cards, postcards, Christmas cards and business cards.

   "Believe me, we've heard all the versions of this story."

   Although the Children's Wish Foundation is not located at the address 
given in the chain letter, all of the Little Craig letters sent to 
Atlanta - 
several thousand pieces a week - are forwarded there, Chappelear said. 
The 
foundation in turn sends them all to a recycling center.

   The Little Craig story is The Myth That Wouldn't Die. Almost three 
years ago,I wrote a column about the phenomenon when a similar wave of 
chain letters blanketed this area.

   This all started in 1989 in England, where a 9-year-old boy named 
Craig 
Shergold  was suffering from a brain tumor. His mother put out a plea for
get-well cards, the English press picked it up, and within two months, the
youngster had received more than 2 million cards, enough to make the record
book.

   But the drive was easier started than stopped. It soon went international,
and continues to this day. The details change, but the mail keeps coming 
- to date, an estimated 70 million cards of one sort or another have been 
sent to one place or another, according to Chappelear.

   The real Craig, incidentally, is now 14 years old and doing fine. He 
had an operation and the tumor was successfully removed. The most common 
American version of the story has him being from Atlanta, so the Shergold 
family "asked that we speak on their behalf in this country," Chappelear 
said.

   And what they'd like to say is: STOP ALREADY, OK? They're overwhelmed 
that 70 million people would be thoughtful enough to do something nice 
for a supposedly dying little boy. But he's not dying, he's not even that 
little anymore, so STOP ALREADY, OK?

   Listen, I've got an idea. If each of you would send a copy of this 
column to 20 friends ...



                           THE ORLANDO SENTINEL

                  February 2, 1994 Wednesday, CENTRAL FLORIDA

SECTION: OSCEOLA SENTINEL; Pg. 1

LENGTH: 446 words

HEADLINE: DON'T SEND ANY MORE BUSINESS CARDS, PLEASE

BYLINE: Geoff Clark of The Sentinel Staff

 BODY:
   "Dear To Whom It May Concern:

   It sounded heartwarming, the letter passed out at a recent meeting of 
the St. Cloud Rotary.


   Even if it was a bit impersonal.

   "We received a letter requesting that business cards be sent to Craig 
Shergold at the address below. We did and ask that you do the same. 
Craig is 7 years old and has a brain tumor. Craig has very little time 
left to live.

   "The reason for this request is because Craig has turned in a wish to the
Children's Make a Wish Foundation, expressing his desire to have an entry 
into the Guinness Book of World Records for his largest collection of 
business cards received by an individual."

   Awww.

   Let's help out the poor unfortunate kid.


   Well, time out.

   I sure wish I could have been the one to sniff out this deal.

   But it wasn't me. It was Steve Graves, pastor at St. Cloud Presbyterian
Church, and a known Rotarian.

   What the heck, said Steve, (which is tame, but still not too unusual 
for a minister) I think I'll check this out.
Good idea he did.

   Too bad 200-odd businesses in Osceola didn't do the same beforehand. 
Not to mention umpteen thousand businesses across Florida, the United 
States and the world.

   That's because there are one or two minor errors in the letter, as Steve
learned and prompted me to check out.


   First, little 7-year-old Craig is not almost dead of his brain tumor.

   He's 14 now and doing fine, said a spokeswoman for the Children's Wish
Foundation. It turns out Craig had surgery that removed most of the brain 
tumor in January 1988, and he underwent radiation and chemotherapy.

   Second, Craig doesn't want your raggedy old business cards. He never did.

   Craig's gig was to try to amass enough get-well cards to make the record
book. He did, receiving at least 33 million as of May 1991, when his mother,
perhaps understandably, pleaded for no more to be sent.
 
   So, what about the business cards, you ask?

   The thinking is that some well-intentioned loon along the way changed the
chain letter from "get-well" cards to "business" cards. Now there's a 

jillion of those things getting sent around, basically to the old, 
out-of-date address for the Children's Wish Foundation. No point in 
giving out that address and perpetuating this thing.

   Anyway, at last check, about 18 months ago, those business cards were 
ending up in a basement in Fairfield. That's in Iowa, where a guy who 
collects businesscards is keeping them.

   But, by golly, some big-hearted Osceolans have been doing their 
29-cent best to help out, no questions asked.

   Don't you just love it when everything comes together at the end of a 
story? 
   And aren't you glad I didn't name your business?





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From: andrewst@u.washington.edu (Andrew Steinberg)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Craige Sherwood (sic x 2) sighting
Date: 10 Jun 1994 06:54:15 GMT
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                  Copyright 1993 The New York Times Company  
                               The New York Times

               September 1, 1993, Wednesday, Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section A; Page 1; Column 2; National Desk

HEADLINE: A Dream Comes True and Comes True . . .

BYLINE: By CHARISSE JONES

 BODY:
   There once was a boy named Craig, who in the midst of his fight against
cancer asked strangers to grant a simple request: Send get-well cards, lots of
them, enough to lift a sick child's spirits and break a world record.

   Craig Shergold got his wish. Ordinary people and heads of state alike
responded to the 7-year-old British boy's plea, sending more than 16 million
greeting cards in a year's time and breaking the standing record within 
months. Now, four years later, Craig Shergold, has his record and his 
health. Doctors removed most of a cancerous brain tumor in 1991 and say the 
disease has not returned.

    But Craig's request lives on through a flurry of chain letters making the
rounds of offices in Manhattan and other cities around the country. And as
thousands of cards continue to pour in, those who first publicized the boy's
appeal have replaced the words "thank you" with two others.

   Enough already.
 
'No Way to Stop It'

    "We've got a 10,000-square-foot warehouse that is stacked to the ceiling
with mail that still hasn't been opened," said Arthur Stein, president of the
Atlanta-based Children's Wish Foundation International, which began the 
initial card campaign in 1989 and asked for it to cease at least two 
years ago. "There's no way to stop it. Everyone keeps saying quit, and 
people ignore the pleas."

   In a latter-day version of the children's game called telephone, Craig's
plight continues to be resurrected in letters delivered via mail carrier 
and fax machine, with facts so different from the original story, the tale 
is at times almost unrecognizable.

   The letters now ask for business cards instead of get-well cards. Depending
on which letter you get, Craig's last name may be Schergold, or Sherfold. And
the letters either switch the names of two foundations that grant wishes to
seriously ill children, or name a foundation that does not exist at all.

   To complicate matters further, many of the cards are mailed to an Atlanta
address that does not exist and are eventually re-routed to the Children's
Wish Foundation headquarters. Some of the envelopes simply say "Wish 
Foundation," with no address or ZIP code. And Mr. Stein said his staff has put
on display one envelope that cryptically read "To The Boy Who Is Sick In The 
Hospital, In Arizona, Or Colorado . . . "

   One thing remains the same: While the drive has been going on for years,
the boy in the appeal has not aged -- he is still 7 and still terminally ill.

   The Children's Wish Foundation uses a donated warehouse and staff of 40
volunteers to handle the nearly 300,000 cards sent in every week, Mr. Stein
said. The Phoenix-based Make-a-Wish Foundation of America, which never dealt
with the Shergold boy or his request, has established a telephone line to tell
the public the current card appeal is not legitimate, nor are they involved.

   And there has been a concerted effort to spread the word that cards --
business or otherwise -- are no longer wanted. Newspaper writers from Dallas
to Manhattan have written articles and columns stating that the boy broke the
record long ago. His mother has appealed through the BBC and other media 
outletsthat no more cards be sent. Even Ann Landers, in a column printed 
last year, begged the public to stop.

   In fact, the Guinness Book of World Records has retired the category 
for the most get-well cards, leaving Craig's 1992 record of 33 million cards
unchallenged.
 
No Longer Counting

    But no amount of publicity has been strong enough to stem the torrent of
faxes and phone calls. "I would suspect we have surpassed 100 million" cards,
Mr. Stein said, adding that the foundation stopped counting once the number
topped 60 million.

   At the request of the Shergold family, he said, the cards are being 
recycled.

   At the Make-a-Wish Foundation, the number of calls to a special phone line
has recently risen from about 800 a month to more than 1,400, indicating the
chain-letter appeal has intensified, said Diana Whittle, a spokeswoman.

   "I can't think of any other appeals that have generated so many phone 
calls," Ms. Whittle said, adding that she has a three-inch file stuffed with
chain letters in her office. "The people who are calling are the ones who are
obviously suspicious. They're saying, 'I think I heard about this two 
years ago, and I just want to make sure this is still not true.' "
 
Charity and Superstition

    Hazel Hammond was one who didn't check. Two weeks ago, the picture editor
at American Express's Travel & Leisure Magazine in Manhattan received a letter
asking her to help fulfill the dying wish of a sick boy.

   "It was an innocuous request," said Ms. Hammond, who immediately sent 
off her business card. "I didn't have to give blood or anything."

   It was a combination of charity and superstition that encouraged Ms. 
Hammond to heed the instructions in the letter and not invite bad luck by 
breaking the chain. So she dutifully printed 10 copies, as the letter 
requested, and forwarded them to friends throughout New York City.

   "I thought I'd do it and get it over with," Ms. Hammond said. After 
all, "I believe in astrology, too."

   One of her acquaintances had already received the letter from someone 
else.

   "It seems like something you want to do for someone, but you don't want to
waste your time," said Pam Older, vice president and director of marketing for
The New Yorker, who checked the story before redistributing the letter. "We
called the Make-a-Wish Foundation and found out the boy's appeal had already
been fulfilled. So I stopped the chain right there. Then I got Hazel's 
letter."  

'Just Exploded From There'

    The Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs in Georgia, following several
inquiries from the media, investigated to make sure that the chain letter was
not a scheme to assemble a mailing list or solicit money and found no 
wrongdoing on the part of the Children's Wish Foundation, said a spokeswoman
for the office, Carolyn Mills.

   Most feel the chain-letter campaign is simply a good-natured effort gone
awry.
                                                                                
   "I think it's amusing," Ms. Hammond said. "I'm sure the origin of it was
quite honest and sincere."

   In 1989, Craig, the son of a waitress and truck driver living in 
Carshalton, England, was suffering from a brain tumor and not expected to 
survive. The British media began to publicize the boy's desire to break the
world record for receiving the most get-well cards, and eventually, Mr. Stein 
said, the Children's Wish organization was enlisted in the effort.

   The day after the foundation was asked to assist in the appeal, a board
member asked if he could fax the request to his company's offices around the
nation, Mr. Stein said.

   "It just exploded from there," he said. "It seemed his employees got so
enthused they sent it to all their suppliers and customers. And fax-o-mania
took hold."
 
Boy's Tumor Removed

    Because of the card campaign, John W. Kluge, the billionaire who is the
chairman of the Metromedia Company, learned of Craig's illness and paid for
him to see a neurosurgeon at the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center.
In March 1991, more than 90 percent of Craig's brain tumor was removed, and 
he is believed to be cured, said a hospital spokesman, Tom Doran.

   The boy still lives in England with his parents, said Mr. Stein, who 
stays in touch with the family.

   T-shirts, caps and other gifts sent to Craig are distributed to other sick
children at the request of Craig's mother, Marion. And the approximately 
$6,000 sent to the foundation in Craig's name is being set aside to 
offset any expenses incurred in trips to the United States for follow-up 
treatment.

   In the meantime, Ms. Hammond ponders her good deed and admits there is one
thing she has left undone -- getting back to those friends she made the 
latest links in the chain.

   "That's what I'm feeling guilty about," Ms. Hammond said. "I need to call
them and say don't bother."

GRAPHIC: Photos: Some of the 300,000 cards sent weekly to Craig Shergold, 
below, at the Children's Wish Foundation International in Atlanta. (Alan S.
Weiner for The New York Times)




From m_cockerill@icrf.icnet.uk Mon Jul 25 09:30:13 PDT 1994
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From: m_cockerill@icrf.icnet.uk (Matthew Cockerill)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Craig Shergold (no, don't run away!)
Date: Mon, 25 Jul 1994 14:28:49 +0100
Organization: Imperial Cancer Research Fund
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I�m utterly new to the list, but I have at least read the FAQ and hope I
can post the following information without being totally out of line.

alt.folklore.urban readers may be interested to know that Marian Shergold
has written an autobiographical account of Craig's illness, his appeal for
cards, and the resulting mayhem. I think it's a pretty cool story, but
then I'm (self-evidently) biased:

Craig Shergold: A Mother's Story, by Marion Shergold with Pamela Cockerill.
(Bantam, 1993) ISBN 0-553-40629-9

This is the UK edition. I'm not entirely sure about the details for the US
edition.

Regarding the comments in the FAQ. Craig *does* still live in a council
house in a remarkably unsalubrious area of south London (Carshalton). His
family did not materially benefit in any significant way from the whole
affair, and Ernie, Craig's father, was recently made redundant by the
electricity board. 

Last time I saw him (about 6 months ago), Craig was on top form, and just
settling in back at school. It really couldn't have happened to a nicer
guy, in fact it is incredible how down to earth he has remained despite
the media attention.

If anyone want's to start a chain letter encouraging people to buy
Marion's book, I'm sure she'd have no complaints...

Matt

-- 
================================================
Matt Cockerill <m_cockerill@icrf.icnet.uk>
Imperial Cancer Research Fund (Cell Cycle Group)
Clare Hall
South Mimms         
Potters Bar       Tel: 071 269 3876
Herts.  EN6 3LD   Fax: 071 269 3801
================================================