winter@Apple.COM (Patricia Winter) (09/15/88)
When I first saw "Nanook's" posting about the dying child in
Florida who wanted to receive cards and letters, I reacted as
most netters evidently did: "Oh no, not again..."
However, unlike the "Little David in Scotland" posting that
made the rounds here some months back, Nanook's mentioned an
actual organization, the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Since I've
had some contact with MAW, I didn't want their good name to
be sullied if this was a scam.
So I called the local MAW director and asked him to research
the facts as given in Nanook's posting. He, in turn, called
the MAW office nearest to W. Palm Beach, Florida (the address
mentioned in the posting). Here's what he found out:
* The MAW staffers in the area say that the story is real.
There really is a local child named David who is dying of
leukemia and has stated a wish to receive cards.
* However, MAW is not involved at all in this effort. They
presume that the address given is that of the child's family
or a friend.
It's unfortunate that because of past experiences with such
urban myths as Little David in Scotland (which may or may
not have been true at one time, but evidently that was years
ago if ever), most of us tend to assume that similar stories
are also false. Quite frankly, it didn't help the situation
that the posting was made by someone who chose to use an
alias instead of his/her real name, and who was coming onto
the net from a host that has been the source of previous
bogus or ill-advised postings. (Most notably "JJ" and his
request for money.)
So I hope that if anyone in netland got a bad impression of
the Make-A-Wish Foundation, that this will rectify it.
Incidentally, I understand that "20/20" did a story last week
on a supposedly similar group that appears to be a scam. I
personally have seen donation cans in local stores (something
MAW never does) for a group with a similar-sounding name; that
group is currently under investigation by the DA's office in
their home county. I can only presume that their name was
intentionally chosen to reap the benefits of MAW's good reputation.
Now then, maybe we can go back to discussing amusing incidents
with computers (comp.misc), and how to keep the FCC from giving
away our spectrum (rec.ham-radio)!! :-)
Patty
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Patty Winter N6BIS DOMAIN: winter@apple.com
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