The following item appeared in the most recent issue of an AALL
chapter newsletter:
HELP SET A WORLD'S RECORD
Craig Shergold is a 7-year-old suffering from terminal
cancer. He would like to be included in the Guinness Book
of World Records for the largest collection of business
cards held by one person. Craig would be very grateful if
you could send him one of your business cards to the address
below. Obviously we need to respond promptly.
The address is:
Craig Shergold
c/o Children's Make A Wish Foundation
32 Perimeter Center East
Atlanta, GA 30346
Before you send a card or encourage others to do so, please
consider the following news items and the power of urban legends.
Newsday
April 14, 1993, Wednesday, NASSAU AND SUFFOLK
EDITION SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 8
HEADLINE: One Boy's Irrepressible Wish
BYLINE: Ed Lowe
BODY:
I got a new chain letter.
This one arrived in a high-quality envelope, containing high-
quality, corporate stationery identifying its author in the most
dignified, corporate fashion: an acquaintance of mine of more
than 30 years, a neighbor, a Newsday contemporary, a prominent
and respected citizen of my village and the very successful
president of a local business with three subsidiaries. The
letter contained a simple yet puzzling plea for my participation
in an almost disturbingly inexpensive, mass gesture of charity.
It identified a 7-year-old boy, Craig Shergold, who it claimed
was suffering from terminal cancer and whose final - as it were
- ambition was to gather together the largest collection of
business cards ever assembled and by so doing become (however
dubiously) immortalized in the Guinness Book of Records. The
letter included a compilation of corporate names and addresses of
125 other business executives throughout New York City and Long
Island to whom prior recipients had sent their requests, at
roughly 10 each. My enthusiastic correspondent had spun his
Rolodex and generously doubled that number of potential links
that would proceed from his efforts.
"Because of Craig's condition," began the final paragraph of
the letter, "obviously speed is of the essence, and while we're
all busy perhaps a little time to take care of a very young boy's
dying wish will make us all feel a little richer for it."
To be sure.
....
I re-read the letter and noticed the address to which
participants were to dispatch their business cards. It read,
"Craig Shergold C/O Children's Make-A-Wish Foundation, 32
Perimeter Center East, Atlanta, GA 30346." Directory
assistance provided a telephone number for that address, and I
became one of 100 callers-a-day who have inquired about the
authenticity of the Craig Shergold letters. First of all, the
place is not the Make-A-Wish Foundation. It is the Children's
Wish Foundation International, which is like Make-A-Wish, but a
different organization. Christie Chappelear, one of six full-time
employees of the organization, said that efforts to stem the tide
of chain-letter mailings on behalf of Craig Shergold have been
futile, at best. Shergold, the son of a truck driver and a
waitress from just outside London, England, was diagnosed five
years ago as having a brain tumor that surely would do him in,
and soon. One of his physicians, impressed by the stack of get-
well cards the boy had received from friends and schoolmates,
jokingly suggested that he tell the Guinness people how many
cards he had; it might be a world record. That remark
metamorphosed into a boy's goal, or wish, and the then-3-year-old
Children's Wish Foundation in Atlanta took up the cause. A June,
1991, People magazine story told how John Kluge, reportedly the
richest man in the United States, heard of Shergold's plight and
promptly flew Shergold, once expected to survive only a few
months, and his parents to the University of Virginia Medical
Center in Charlottesville. Kluge paid for a sophisticated
surgical procedure that appeared then (and still appears) to have
been successful, as Craig reportedly recently resumed walking.
Meanwhile, the Guinness Book closed the book on Craig
Shergold's wish to receive a million get-well cards, he will hold
the record permanently; they will accept no challenges; no post
office could endure it.
Nor can they stop the flow, evidently. Sixty million pieces of
mail have been received so far. Each one must be opened and
examined for possible donations. No business cards are sought;
none are welcomed. The whole deal was over three years ago;
sorry. Please stop.
Crain's Chicago Business
August 17, 1992
SECTION: JOE CAPPO; Pg. 10
HEADLINE: Bulletin: Craig's fine so forget the cards
BODY:
Perhaps some of you have received a letter similar to the one
that came across my desk a couple of weeks ago. It started like
this: "Craig Shergold is 7 years old and suffering from
terminal cancer. One of his wishes is to be included in the '
Guinness Book of World Records' with the largest number of
business cards ever collected by one person . . . " The
letter goes on to urge recipients to send their business cards
to little Craig, and it provides his address in Surrey, England.
It also asks the recipient to send along the same letter to 10
other business people.
If you have received this chain letter, please be aware that
there are a couple of minor inaccuracies in it. For example,
Craig is 13 years old. He had surgery more than a year ago to
remove a malignant tumor from his brain, and doctors say he
should be able to live a normal life.
One other thing: He doesn't want any business cards.
About four years ago, Craig was thought to be terminally ill
and was trying to set the record for the most get-well cards ever
received. He achieved his goal of 30 million cards and his name
is listed in the Guinness book. Somewhere along the line,
however, some well-wisher got the idea that Craig also wanted to
set a record for business cards. That's when this chain letter
started swirling literally around the world.
I received one of these chain letters a year ago that had
already been circulated to people in Australia, Singapore,
Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Germany, Switzerland,
Macau, Canada, China, the Philippines, Denmark, the Netherlands,
Sweden, Belgium, France and the U.S. A more recent letter was
distributed to such personalities as Dan Rather, Sally Field,
Felix Rohatyn and Whoppi Goldberg.
Like a good soldier, I sent Craig a card and distributed the
letter to 10 others. A few days later, my secretary spotted an
Ann Landers column saying that Craig and his family were being
inundated with unwanted business cards. I immediately informed
the 10 people to disregard the earlier request. If you
remember nothing more of this column than the following
statement, it will have served its purpose. CRAIG SHERGOLD
DOESN'T WANT ANY BUSINESS CARDS OR GET-WELL CARDS.
The chain letter was more effective than anyone ever imagined,
as insidious as a computer virus. The Shergolds are drowning in
unwanted cards. In the U.S., the cards are being diverted by the
Postal Service to the Children's Wish Foundation International
in Atlanta. But that is only to avoid shipping them overseas.
The foundation also does not want any more cards. "We had a
warehouse donated to us simply to house the cards," reported
Christy Chappelear, events coordinator for the foundation. "And
we still get about 200 telephone calls a day regarding Craig."
Ms. Chappelear estimated that about 60 million (!) greeting
cards have been sent to Craig. They are being forwarded to
recyclers.
The foundation has also found a place for the business cards.
A part-time composer and freelance writer named Walter Day, of
Fairfield, Iowa, had started collecting business cards several
years ago and has established in his home what his promotional
literature calls "The World's Only Archives Preserving Business
Cards for Posterity."
Mr. Day believes that business cards are important to the
study of our culture. "Business cards are a fascinating,
fascinating little window into self-promotion and a reflection of
our times," he enthused. Through his own efforts, Mr. Day had
collected 7 million business cards. Then, he heard about Craig
and the Children's Wish Foundation. He called the foundation and
offered to take the 35 million cards it had collected. "Keep
this in mind," Mr. Day related, "we are talking about two semis
full of cards. I've got business cards all over the place; the
garage and basement are crammed full of cartons filled with
cards."
Perhaps the only positive note to this saga is that Mr. Day
has plucked out some of the more important cards and has created
a slide show he plans to take on the lecture circuit. Even then,
he is sometimes astounded by his own bulging collection.
"I didn't mean for it to ever get this extreme," he admitted.
*****************************************************************
If you have already sent a card do not feel badly. You are not
alone. Consider the following item from Forbes magazine.
Prince Charles mailed his card. So did Barber Conable, former
president of the World Bank. Christopher Forbes, vice chairman of
Forbes Inc., spread the appeal to Germany, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
Some 22 million business cards have arrived, and another 800
sacks of cards sit unopened at the small post office near Craig's
hometown of Carshalton, England.
But the campaign is odd. Craig is not 7 but 12 years old now.
He has waged a successful chain-mail effort to collect a record
16.25 million cards -- not business cards but get-well cards. In
March, billionaire John Kluge paid to bring Craig to the U.S. for
surgery. He's now recovering from removal of a brain tumor and is
apparently out of danger. The family has turned all business
cards over to a recycler who converts them to pulp. Spread the
word.
***********************************************************
* Tom Hanley * Internet: hanley@udavxb.oca *
* University of Dayton * .udayton.edu *
* Law Library * Bitnet: hanley@dayton *
* 300 College Park * Phone: (513) 229-2444 *
* Dayton, OH 45469-1350 * FAX: (513) 229-2555 *
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* "Happiness is no laughing matter." *
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