29 September 2008
Pranksters Target Girl Scouts
Posted by admin under: Uncategorized; community service .
A parent who had lost a brother to cancer had brought the idea to the group, which meets in the red brick building of the Ellerslie United Methodist Church. She wanted to know if the girls would be interested in collecting caps to help cancer patients, some of them younger than the girls themselves.
“The girl scouts are all about service to our community,” Miller said. “So I said yes. It was something easy that any age can do. Chemo is very expensive and Ruby Memorial works with a lot of poorer populations. I thought that would be a wonderful service.”
Too wonderful to be true, that is. A curious mom, whose child was new to the troop, had her doubts but was eager. She planned to use an online forum for photographers to generate support — and collect as many caps as possible. Before she posted it online she searched for more information.
Everywhere she looked, however, she came up empty. A spokesperson at Ruby Memorial Hospital confirmed there was no such collection. It was a hoax.
…
The scam is not uncommon. The Ellerslie troop belongs to the Shawnee Council, of Martinsburg, W.Va. No one there could be reached for comment. The hoax did crop up in the Parkersburg, W.Va., area last month. It was the same story: collect caps to benefit cancer patients.
Kevin Spradlin at the Cumberland Times News hastens to add that there are plenty of very real collection drives that do benefit people. This one just happens to be a scam and if you hear about this kind of service project in your e-mail inbox, make sure to check it out.
- Nice Cap on a Frustrating Hoax
- Saturday’s Eagle Nest – 10/18/2008
- GSUSA Girls Give Books to Botswana
- Saturday’s Eagle Nest – 02/14/2009 (delayed)
- Saturday’s Eagle Nest – 9/20/2008
One Comment so far...
» Nice Cap on a Frustrating Hoax Says:
5 November 2008 at 4:20 pm.
[...] was taken in by a hoax that has been circulating among troops out east. It’s the same one I posted about a couple months ago: collect bottle caps to pay for cancer treatments. The UPI says the Kentucky troop turned those [...]
