Miscellaneous stories (non-Shergold)

• Title: IN THIS CORNER\ THE LONGEST CAMPAIGN TRAIL YET (about a boy named Teich)



• Abstract: "...Teich said he's had no response from politicians on his candidacy, but did receive a business card from House Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. in the mail. It was attached to an article on Teich that had appeared in the Post. Teich collects business cards of famous people and had requested one from an aide in the Speaker's office..."



• Source: Boston Globe May 17, 1984 Author: Susan Trausch Globe Staff



• Title: Smiley Anders'column



• Abstract: "Information exchange: Charles Tessier says the reader seeking sugar-free ice cream can find Cafe Glace ice cream at Vitality Health Food Store in several yummy flavors. Bettye Hunt says BREC's Sharp Road Senior Center (273-3924) offers classes in oil painting, computers, exercise, ceramics and flower arranging. Larry Harper (927-4321) collects business cards, and wants yours. And Blanca (261-4734) needs a tape of the TV program "Prayer for World Peace" which aired last Saturday at 11 a.m."



• Source: The Advocate (Baton Rouge, La.) June 12, 1987 Author: SMILEY ANDERS



• Title: Smiley Anders'column



• Abstract: "Webb Marcantel says Warren L. Reynolds II of Nebraska, who collects business cards, now has more than 32,500. He needs 36,000 to set a record. Send him yours at P.O. Box 34642, Omaha, Neb. 68134."



• Source: The Advocate (Baton Rouge, La.) August 21, 1987 Author: SMILEY ANDERS



• Title: Smiley Anders'column



• Abstract: Looking for stuff: Riviere Morris (292-6726) says the Alexander Stirling chapter of DAR collects Campbell's Soup labels for DAR schools. Linda Thomas (344-4111) needs ceramics supplies for classes at LTI. And Larry Harper (1813 Beech Grove, Baton Rouge 70806) collects business cards



• Source: The Advocate (Baton Rouge, La.) August 28, 1987 Author: SMILEY ANDERS



• Title: Business card update: Jennifer wants to say thanks.



• Abstract: Jennifer is Jennifer Hoge of Chantilly. A few weeks back, she wrote me with news of a friend who is an avid business-card collector. The friend's apartment had burned to a crisp a few days earlier. So had her collection of business cards. Would Levey be kind enough to ask his readers to send replacements? Levey would, Levey did and the news from Chantilly is all good. "To date I have received over 300 pieces of mail and close to 5,000 cards," Jennifer writes. "To all those who sent only one card, I am just as grateful as I am to those who sent 100.



• Source: Washington Post June 16, 1988



• Title: Car Pooling: Life in the fast lane with total strangers (about car pooling in San Francisco)



• Abstract: "...Most days I ride in an unfamiliar car. But occasionally I enter one I've met before. There is the Cadillac Seville driven by a founding partner of a law firm who collects business cards from his passengers. There is the sporty 1968 Mustang classic driven by a young, handsome guy who is "in women's fashions," owns a retail shop in downtown San Francisco and dreams of becoming another Doug Tompkins of Esprit..."



• Source: THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE November 13, 1988 Author: CHRISTINE LYONS



• Title: Consuls Have More Fun (about the family of a Frencn consul general)



• Abstract: "...Their life is fun but demanding, say the Viauxs. He escapes by literally running away from it all - weekdays, he jogs 10 miles; weekends, he cranks it up to 13. She unwinds by attending aerobics class five days a week. The boys, meanwhile, have adapted remarkably well, according to their mother. Sergio even collects business cards from famous guests...."



• Source: THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE April 10, 1989 Author: LIZ LUFKIN, CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER



• Title: Can you top this?



• Abstract: "Joey Amato, of Massapequa Park, collects business cards. He has 875 of them, including cards in braille, and seven cards from foreign countries. He keeps them in a photo album."



• Source: Newsday (Melville, NY) May 20, 1989 Author: Sarah Walsh. Kidsday Staff Critic



• Title: MUSEUM OF LIFE AND SCIENCE DISPLAYS AN ODD ASSORTMENT



• Abstract: You don't have to open your raincoat to flash Mark Thomas. Just hand him your business card. As a registered nurse at Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, his job is to administer aid to the sick. But on the side, this 41-year-old tends to his business card collection that started out in a shoe box and grew into the thousands. "People look at you like you're crazy," says Mr. Thomas, who was among the handful of collectors showing off their prized acquisitions last Saturday during Collector's Day at the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science. "I first picked up a few (cards) when I was Christmas shopping one year. I don't even know why I picked them up, but I've always been sort of a pack rat. I started throwing them in shoe boxes, and it sort of blossomed...



• Source: Fayetteville Observer, The (NC) February 16, 1991 Author: MICHAEL FUTCH, STAFF WRITER



• Title: EACH DAY, DEBARY IS MAKING HISTORY (about a festival in a small town in Florida)



• Abstract: ...All business: Having a good time at the Manatee Festival on Saturday was Norm Charron, a business card collector who drove down from Satsuma in Putnam County with his wife, Lois. Charron, 78, who was in a tank accident during World War II and gets around pretty well on two new plastic knees, estimates he has collected as many as 70,000 business cards in 10 years, all alphabetized and bound in three-ring binders...



• Source: THE ORLANDO SENTINEL February 3, 1994 Author: By Bo Poertner of The Sentinel Staff



• Title: Altamont woman�s collecting was in the cards



• Abstract: ALTAMONT -Shari McCain wanted to collect matchbook covers, but her parents told her no because of the potential fire hazard. She considered collecting key rings, but that proved too expensive for a girl in grade school. �I wanted a hobby, but it had to be something that didn�t cost a lot of money,� McCain said. When she finally found her answer, it was almost by accident. �I saw some business cards lying around and started picking them up,� she said. Sixteen years and 18,567 business cards later, the 24-year-old Altamont woman is still picking them up.



• Source: Herald & Review (Decatur, IL) February 6, 1994 Author: SCOTT PERRY



• Title: DOWNTOWN RETURNS TO LIFE IN DELAND (about life in a small town in Florida)



• Abstract: This thank you is all business: You remember Norm Charron, the Putnam County business card collector. After his address was published in Across Volusia, he began receiving envelopes full of cards. He dropped by last week and said some of the envelopes had no return addresses. He didn't know who sent all the cards, but he wanted to say thanks just the same.



• Source: THE ORLANDO SENTINEL February 16, 1994 Author: By Bo Poertner of The Sentinel Staff



• Title: COLLECTOR'S BUSINESS IS ... IN THE CARDS



• Abstract: When it comes to marketing themselves with style and pizzazz, many businesses are built on a house of cards. That's because they insist on distributing business cards that are b-o-r-i-n-g. Of course, it doesn't have to be that way. Ask Avery N. Pitzak, owner of a cornucopia of ingenious and arresting business cards. He has cards printed on papyrus, plywood and maple;cards etched on glass, stainless steel, brass, and even aluminum (with 24-karat-gold raised letters). Cards made of leather and plastic, and constructed of paper with dye-cuts so precise if you open 'em, up pops a replica of a Gutenberg printing press. Cards shaped like feet (for a foot doctor) and envelopes (stationerycompany) and Cadillacs (limousine service). Cards made of liquid crystals that can read you like a mood ring, or holographic and 3-D images. Of course, when you've spent more than 40 of your 48 years collecting business cards and your collection "was at 80,000 when I stopped counting 12 years ago" and you're president of the American Business Card Club, it figures that you'd have a serious number of arcane, curious and downright weird business cards.



• Source: Rocky Mountain News (CO) September 5, 1994 Author: JAMES B. MEADOW



• Title: no title (classified ad)



• Abstract: Business card collection offered: I would like to offer my old business-card collection to any interested reader. There are a couple of hundred cards, some of which are 20 years old. My husband and I are moving across the country and we need to lighten our load. Naturally, I would not charge for the cards. I just want them to go to someone who will appreciate them. _ J.K., Irvine



• Source: The Orange County Register May 9, 1995



• Title: Rich, famous have cabdriver's number/Afghanistan immigrant goes by `007,' collects business cards from D.C. fares



• Abstract: WASHINGTON - Hop into Ahmad Hassanzadeh's taxicab and see why hundreds of satisfied passengers from around the world say he is the most unusual driver they've met. He greets people by asking them to call him 007, as in Bond - James Bond. And 007 is his Washington Flyer cab number, license plate number and the last three digits of his cab phone, which he answers, "Hello, 007." "What can I do to make sure people remember who I am? So I'm 007, a famous driver," Hassanzadeh said. He wears a suit, tie and pocket handkerchief. Sometimes, he offers passengers sandwiches from home or cookies and bread from a Middle Eastern bakery. There are cold drinks during the summer and, if there's time to stop, cappuccino in the winter. What 007 wants in return, besides his fare, is a business card. Hassanzadeh has collected 5,000, which he has assembled in 55 small leather books. About half the books are in a Dallas Cowboys gym bag Hassanzadeh keeps beside him on the cab's front seat as if they contained nuclear codes.



• Source: Houston Chronicle March 30, 1996 Author: STEPHEN C. FEHR; Washington Post



• Title: Museum makes cards its business



• Abstract: Forget black and white. Roy's Roofing & Spouting of Reading does its business card in gold with a hologram pattern that flashes. Forget paper. Salem China Co. offers a saucer with a duck painted in the middle and the company name etched on the bottom. Don't forget the marketing power of free samples. There's the dentist who produces the Floss Card, a piece of plastic with a string of the teeth-cleaning stuff hanging off the bottom. A glass company passes out glass rectangles; an adult exotic store attaches free condoms. For those slender calling cards most people stuff in wallets or desk drawers, collector Ken Erdman has bestowed another name: art.



• Source: St. Petersburg Times April 1, 1996



• Title: PATHWAY TO ADVENTURE (about kids and reading)



• Abstract: "...Another voracious reader is Kristen Jordan, 12, a seventh-grader who also is home-schooled. Kristen collects business cards as a hobby -- she has 1,700 of them. And she plays the clarinet and the piano...."



• Source: Journal-World (Lawrence, KS) August 8, 1996 Author: Dave Toplikar, Journal-World Writer



• Title: A JUNCTURE: NEW DUTIES, PAST PROFILES (in a farewell letter)



• Abstract: "...Thanks to all the readers who have called or written through the years. You've educated me, too, even when you were delivering a brickbat. Fortunately, there seemed to be relatively few of those, and when they came, they landed with a very civil thud. This job has been terrific for me, and it's also been great for my daughter, Allison, who collects business cards. She thanks you, too."



• Source: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR) March 9, 1997 Author: MIKE FRANCIS of The Oregonian staff



• Title: CARDS OF DISTINCTION



• Abstract: Business cards are like politics: Everyone has an opinion what they should be, but no two people totally agree. One side loves the truly unusual card _ the more distinctive, the better. Others are loyal to the standard black ink on white paper, $9 per 1,000 business cards. The minimalists believe the card must reflect the company's professional image. Wacky advocates say stodgy is forgettable and in today's business climate, that's unforgivable. The semibrave try a touch of color. The superbold slather fluorescent ink all over the place. "There are no rules" for the perfect business card, insists Avery Pitzak, president of American Business Card Club in Aurora, Colo., and business-card collector for 45 years.



• Source: The Orange County Register March 31, 1997 Author: Jan Norman:The Orange County Register (& "Business cards can run from weird to stodgy" The Tampa Tribune April 28, 1997 & "BUSINESS CARDS: WHAT MAKES THEM BRING YOU BUSINESS?" The Buffalo News May 5, 1997 Author: JAN NORMAN & "COLORFUL, EYE-CATCHING CARDS GAIN POPULARITY AS BUSINESS MAGNETS" Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) October 28, 1997 Author: JAN NORMAN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER)



• Title: Hyannis: Different time, different place (about a man's recollections of a Massachusetts town)



• Abstract: "...An avid traveler, Weston, 69, had been back and forth across the United States 10 times by the time he was 20. He continues to travel today, mostly by car and mostly on back roads, he said. Along the way, he collects business cards, which give him the opportunity to talk to people about their lives and their homes..."



• Source: Cape Cod Times (Hyannis, MA) November 26, 1998 Author: K.C. MYERS



• Title: WORST-CASE SCENARIO: THE UNSOLVED MURDER OF SARAH HUTCHINGS (about a murder investigation)



• Abstract: "...Thomas knew Sarah Hutchings, but they did not have a relationship. He said they'd met while she was working in local restaurants and he'd come in for a bite to eat while on patrol. Sarah was known to mix with a number of cops. She kept a binder filled with business cards, including those of police officers from Santa Rosa, Sonoma and Napa counties. Two of Thomas' business cards also were in the binder. The cops, male friends and men she'd met through personal ads, made for a long list of possible suspects...."



• Source: Press Democrat, The (Santa Rosa, CA) January 31, 1999 Author: Randi Rossmann



• Title: ONLY THING NOT BEING COLLECTED IN AMERICA IS DUST



• Abstract: Before you get to thinking that people who collect Fonzibles are weird . . . meet Stan Kost. An auto-parts delivery guy "between jobs," Kost collects business cards, one of the few things in contemporary culture of such little value that folks still actually give them away. What strange avarice drives this hobby?



• Source: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR) April 14, 1999 Author: JONATHAN NICHOLAS - of The Oregonian staff



• Title: Life goes on in Republic, and the now-banned fish becomes a hot item (about a town getting rid of its Christian fish symbol)



• Abstract: "We've had a lot of people call from all over the country asking what we're going to do with this stuff," said City Administrator Dean P. Thompson as he stood in his office, cluttered this week with fish-adorned lapel pins, buttons, patches, business cards, stationery, resolutions, a clock and other memorabilia. "I had a guy call in who said, 'I'll give you $100 for the city limit sign,"' Thompson continued with a smile. "A guy from Georgia said he collects business cards. He said, 'Send me a card."'



• Source: Jefferson City News-Tribune (MO) July 24, 1999



• Title: WOMAN BONKERS ABOUT BUSINESS CARD COLLECTION



• Abstract: CAMP POINT, Ill. (AP) - Teri Kestner says she never intended to collect business cards. But that was a few thousand cards ago - 32,988 to be precise - in a collection that's still growing with no two alike. "I didn't think it would get this big," Kestner said. Some people limit their collection to certain kinds of cards, maybe from a certain company or state. Kestner doesn't. She launched the hobby about 10 years ago. Then, her collection was small - and local.



• Source: Telegraph Herald (Dubuque, IA) July 27, 1999




Craig Shergold stories

• Title: Bogus chain letter dupes area businesses



• Abstract: GAFFNEY - Chalk it up to the Christmas spirit of giving. Businesses and public agencies across the Upstate, touched by what they believe is a dying boy's wish, are falling prey to a bogus chain letter that asks people to send business cards to the child so he can set a world record.



• Source: Herald-Journal (Spartanburg, SC) December 20, 1991



• Title: Region joins nation in error of mercy



• Abstract: Edward B. Fogarty thought it was in the Christmas spirit when he passed along a chain letter to help a young cancer victim who wanted to amass the world's largest business card collection. It turns out, however, that Fogarty and scores of other lawyers, doctors and businessmen in Western Massachusetts were the latest players in a year-old, nationwide comedy of errors. The cancer patient, 12-year-old Craig Shergold of Surrey, England, never wanted business cards, he wanted "Get Well" cards. He had already made it into the Guinness Book of World Records in April 1990. And the Shergold family, which has received 33 million greeting cards since Craig announced his wish in 1989, has spent the last year urgently appealing for people to stop sending them mail.



• Source: Union-News (Springfield, MA) January 3, 1992 Author: NICK KATZ



• Title: GCBA LENDS A HEND TO TERMINALLY ILL BOY



• Abstract: A terminally ill Rhode Island youngster, who collects business cards, is getting a helping hand from the Greater Cleveland Bowling Association. Craig Shergold, 7, has been diagnosed as having terminal cancer. He collects business cards and is trying to be included in the Guinness Book of World Records for his efforts.



• Source: Plain Dealer, The (Cleveland, OH) May 4, 1992 Author: GEORGE SWEDA



• Title: They wish well-wishers would stop already!



• Abstract: Three years ago Craig Shergold of Surrey, England, was a charming little boy with a big brain tumor, and no one expected him to live past Christmas. His dearest wish, he said, was to get into the Guinness Book of World Records for receiving the most get-well cards. An Atlanta-based nonprofit group that fulfills the wishes of terminally ill children was contacted. It asked people to send cards to the ailing 10-year-old in care of its address. Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger were among those who boosted the boy well beyond the world record of 1.2 million cards in May of 1990. By January, more than 60 million cards were recycled or re-distributed to other children.



• Source: THE WASHINGTON TIMES SEPTEMBER 1, 1992 Author: Betsy Pisik; THE WASHINGTON TIMES



• Title: Well-intentioned or not, shackle this chain letter



• Abstract: DES MOINES - Iowans should stop participating in a chain letter that has swamped an English family with greeting cards and U.S. charitable foundation with business cards. Assistant U.S. District Attorney Ed Kelly says Iowans, however well-intentioned, should save their stamps. The chain letter was started in the 1980s to send get-well cards to a 7-year-old English boy who had cancer. The boy wanted to break the Guinness Book of World Records for receiving the most greeting cards. The boy broke the record and recovered from cancer, but the letters still poured in. In 1990, it was reported that 16 million cards had been sent, despite the family's request that they cease.



• Source: The Gazette (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City) October 30, 1993



• Title: DON'T SEND ANY MORE BUSINESS CARDS, PLEASE



• Abstract: ''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. 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.



• Source: THE ORLANDO SENTINEL February 2, 1994 Author: Geoff Clark of The Sentinel StaffX



• Title: no title (students in the news section)



• Abstract: The Future Business Leaders of America sponsored a business card collection for a terminal cancer patient, seven-year-old Craig Shergold, who seeks recognition by the Guiness Book of World Records for the most business cards collected. Over 500 cards were collected and sent to Craig by Shaw's FBLA members.



• Source: KIMBERLY ROGERS, ASHLEY LAWLER and JENNIFER HISE for Shaw High School Mobile Register (AL) March 10, 1994



• Title: UNBROKEN CHAIN BECOMES BROKEN RECORD // BLIZZARD OF MAIL PERSISTS



• Abstract: Two agencies that grant wishes to terminally ill children have one of their own. It's not a new wish nor can it be easily granted, but the Arizona-based Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Georgia-based Children's Wish Foundation want to end chain letters for Craig Shergold. Recipients were asked to send business cards to him so he can be listed in the Guinness Book of World Records. Those who comply with the letters aren't really helping a terminally ill child reach a goal. Instead, they're aiding the country's paper recycling efforts, officials said. The chain letter circulating throughout Central Illinois the past few months asks that business cards be sent to the 14-year-old through the Children's Make-A-Wish Foundation in Georgia. The problem is no one wants the business cards. The Guinness Book of World Records doesn't have an entry for the largest business card collection; Shergold has since made a surprise recovery; and even the name of the organization listed is an apparent merger of the names of the two agencies.



• Source: Pantagraph, The (Bloomington, IL) April 6, 1994 Author: TONY PARKER



• Title: SICK BOY WANTS CARDS TO SET GUINESS RECORD



• Abstract: You can help a child fulfill a dream simply by sending him your business card. Seven-year-old Craig Shengold has a brain tumor and little time to live. He has turned in a wish to the Children's Make-a-Wish Foundation and expressed his desire to have an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest business card collection received by an individual.



• Source: Greensboro News & Record June 5, 1994



• Title: Craig's Card Collection Complete



• Abstract: Kind-hearted, thoughtful business people hang onto your business cards. Craig Shergold does not want them. He stopped collecting them.



• Source: Tulsa World July 20, 1994



• Title: BEWARE OF BUSINESS CARDS REQUESTS, SAYS STATE AG



• Abstract: State Attorney General Charles W. Burson is warning Tennesseans to beware of chain letters requesting business cards or names of people for additional business cards. Tennesseans and businesses have been receiving requests for a sick boy!whose dying wish is to be included in the Guinness Book of World Records as having the largest business card collection. The requests are not legitimate. Burson warns Tennesseans to be careful about sending personal information to this kind of solicitation. ". . .the request may seem harmless when, in reality, someone is playing on the emotions of Tennesseans for personal profit," Burson said.



• Source: Knoxville News-Sentinel, The (TN) August 3, 1995



• Title: Villa Park police form link with seniors



• Abstract: When Villa Park's finest - golden agers and police department representatives - gather monthly in the council room of village hall for S.A.L.T. (Seniors and Lawmen Together) meetings, it's evident a trusting partnership has formed... Before getting to the meeting's featured topic, Ohlson cautions the seniors about a tired, old scam that pops up in Villa Park every-so-often and came to his attention once again. "If you get a chain letter asking you to send your business card to a boy who's dying but wants to beat the world's record for having the biggest business card collection, don't send one," Ohlson warns. "This scam has been around for years and it's a way to get your name and address for telemarketing, solicitation and other purposes."



• Source: Daily Herald March 29, 1996 Author: Eloise Podraza



• Title: BUSINESS CARDS KEEP POURING IN DESPITE PLEAS TO STOP, BUSINESSES CONTINUE TO RESPOND TO A CHAIN LETTER THAT IS WRONG ON SEVERAL COUNTS.



• Abstract: A chain letter circulating among Maine businesses asks them to forward business cards to a terminally ill boy so he can set a world record for amassing the most cards. More than 175 Maine companies have received the letter recently, according to a copy of it delivered to The Portland Newspapers. However, there's one major hitch: The claims in the letter are false.



• Source: Portland Press Herald (ME) April 30, 1996 Author: Kim Strosnider Staff Writer



• Title: Chain letter leads firms on bogus trail



• Abstract: TAMPA -- Call them gullible, but at least they're generous. A collection of businesses in the Tampa Bay area have fallen for a well-meaning, but fraudulent, 7-year-old chain-mail letter. The letter, circulating among business people locally, asks that they send a business card to a British boy dying of cancer so that he can set the record for the world's largest business card collection. Trouble is, the boy's cancer was removed in 1991. And he set the record a year earlier, but for greeting cards -- not business cards. And besides, his name isn't Craig Sherwood, or Craig Sherford, as it says on the chain letter. It's Shergold. And he's not 7. He's 16.



• Source: The Tampa Tribune May 3, 1996 Author: NOAM M. M. NEUSNER; Tribune Staff Writer



• Title: Don't send cards



• Abstract: A chain letter making the rounds in Clark County tells a good story, albeit untrue. It asks people to send business cards to the Make A Wish Foundation on behalf of a 7-year-old boy with a brain tumor. The child's wish, the letter says, is to win a spot inThe Guinness Book of World Records for the largest business card collection. The good news is, Craig Shergold had surgery for a brain tumor in 1990 and is healthy today. When his plight made news in 1989, he was flooded with 15 million greeting cards and won recognition from Guinness.



• Source: Columbian, The (Vancouver, WA) October 6, 1996 Author: SUSAN FARMER



• Title: BBB warns of charity scam



• Abstract: Chain letters to businesses that purport to help a dying 17-year old get his wish are probably a scam, the Cornhusker Better Business warns. The letter on behalf of a "Craig Sheford" asks business people to mail their business cards to an At- lanta address. The letter claims She- ford, supposedly terminally ill with cancer, wants to be in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the largest business card collection. But the Make-A-Wish Foundation denies any association with letters, said Scott Mecham, president of the Cornhusker Better Business Bureau. The BBB in Atlanta says the request is fake.



• Source: Lincoln Journal Star (NE) June 9, 1998



• Title: Craig Jones



• Abstract: REGARDING Rex Jory and Craig Jones (The Advertiser, 13/7/98), there may not be a ``Craig Jones'' collecting ``with compliments'' slips. However, in the early-1980s, there was a boy in England with cancer collecting business cards. He wanted to gain a listing in the Guinness Book of Records for the largest business card collection. He achieved his aim and also survived. I saw a letter in the early-1980s and again in the early-1990s. The Advertiser ran a story on the boy (circa 1988?) which included a plea from the boy's father for people to stop sending cards. I believe that the boy's name was Craig Shierlaw. JOHN WINTER, Flagstaff Hill.



• Source: Advertiser, The (Adelaide, Australia) July 21, 1998



• Title: Chain letter on behalf of ill boy fake



• Abstract: A chain letter wending its way through a who's who of Orange County businesses in recent weeks turns out to be a variation of a now-bogus plea to help a terminally ill child. The letter asks people to send business cards to a Craig Shefford of Atlanta, who is reportedly dying of cancer. He is said to want to set a world record for business-card collection. The letter's trail has carved a swath through the local tourism industry, hitting the Anaheim Convention Center, Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, Mission San Juan Capistrano and numerous hotels. But it's also popped up at Amway Nutrilite, Yamaha Motor Corp., Mitsubishi Electric and PacifiCare Health Systems.



• Source: The Orange County Register December 12, 1998 Author: JERRY HIRSCH

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