The Craig Shergold Story
(Originated in 1989)
Written by Ryan DeVries (Authentic Business Card Collector) May 15, 2004.
The Craig Shergold story began in 1989 when an eight-year old boy was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. An idea proposed by individuals close to Craig was to campaign and solicit as many possible greeting and get-well cards from the public to secure him a spot in the Guiness Book of World records.
The chain letter that originated by friends and relatives requesting the greeting and get-well cards from the public turned into a chain letter request for business cards!
The unauthorized chain letter that included the request for business cards also affiliated the Make-A-Wish Foundation to the campaign. For reasons unknown, the Foundations name appeared repeatedly on many of the chain letters and hence the Foundation has been inundated with mail and business cards ever since for Craig.
In 1991, Craig Shergold had the tumor successfully removed and is doing well at the age of twenty-two. Several versions of the chain letters still circulate and almost every one of the chain letters now asks for business cards instead of the greeting cards.
One of the addresses included on the chain letter requesting business cards is “81 Perimeter Center East Atlanta, Georgia USA”. This was the address of yet another foundation identified as Children’s Wish Foundation International. The United States Postal Service in Atlanta Georgia holds more than 100 million mailings for Craig Shergold. After a required length of time, it is said that the millions of business cards will be recycled.
It is speculated that the “Business Card” request instead of the greeting cards was a scam to compile a business contacts directory. The origination of the modified chain letter that included the request for business cards is unknown.
In 1989, when I was eighteen years old I took it upon myself to organize a campaign at my local high school Saint Patrick’s in Sarnia, Ontario to collect business cards for Craig. I mentioned the request for business cards on the public announcements and combined with my donations we came up with approximately four thousand business cards. I shipped them to the Children’s Wish Foundation International address in Atlanta, Georgia.
An estimated count of arrived greeting cards to Craig in England is one hundred million.
There are no known statistics for the amount of business cards that traveled to England.
There are also no statistics for the amount of business cards in storage in Atlanta, Georgia at the present time.