November 21, 1996
Hoax chain letter
hits area businesses
ROBERT MOHL
News Editor
ROANOKE RAPIDS -- A chain letter has been sent to area businesses asking them
to grant the wish of a dying child.
Fortunately the child is fine, and everybody involved wishes you'd ignore the
letter.
The Make-A-Wish Foundation, an organization that grants the wishes of
terminally ill children, is asking people who receive the bogus letter to stop
sending business and greeting cards.
One of the local businesses receiving the letter was JT Automotive in
Littleton.
"Why would anybody want to do that?" asked owner Jack Tant when told it was a
hoax. "I don't see what the catch is."
There doesn't seem to be a catch, just good spirit gone awry.
The story begins in 1989 when 7-year-old Craig Shergold asked for get-well
cards. Working with the Atlanta-based Children's Wish Foundation the English boy
got over 33 million cards, earning a place in the record books.
Craig's plight attracted the attention of billionaire John W. Kluge who paid
for his medical treatment. Craig, now 15, has recovered from his tumor and isn't
collecting cards anymore.
Unfortunately the story doesn't end there.
A request for cards, both greeting and business is crossing the country in
the form of a chain letter. The one in the Roanoke Valley area asks the reader to
send business cards for a "Craig Sherold" to the Make-A-Wish Foundation at a
bogus address in Atlanta. The Make-A-Wish Foundation, headquartered in Phoenix,
was never involved in Craig's case.
"We mostly get calls asking about the validity of the letter," said Judy
Lewis, a communications assistant at Make-A-Wish. "We get about a 1,000 calls a
month."
Most of the cards, both business and greeting, wind up at the Children's Wish
Foundation, where they are immediately hauled off to the recycler.
Arthur Stein, president of the Children's Wish Foundation, said the
charity gets more than 200,000 pieces of mail a week for Craig. The mail is
sorted by a corps of 60 volunteers who work during the week.
The Children's Wish Foundation grants approximately 5,000 wishes a year. A
drop in the bucket compared to the 100,000 children who die from terminal
illnesses in America each year.
"If we had just what people spent on postage it would be a whole 'nother
world," said Stein.
To help the wishes of a dying child, or to ask the help of these
organizations call the Children's Wish Foundation at 1-800-323-9474 or the
Make-A-Wish Foundation at 1-800-722-9474.
(
geocities.com/rjmohl)