Claim: Nick Waters, a 15-year-old physically-challenged boy living in Georgia, wants 10,000 Christmas cards.
Example:[Collected on the Internet, 2004]
Hello All,
I am trying to help out a young boy who lives in Canton, Ga. with his Christmas Wish. Please allow me to explain, this past Sunday in Sunday School at First Baptist of Woodstock, GA a fellow class member asked
everyone to help out her friends little brother. He was born with no arms 13 years ago, and he has been in a wheelchair all of his life. His health has been getting bad towards the end of this year. Needless to say he has had a tough life so far. If he could have anything he wanted for Christmas, he replied, "I want a Christmas Miracle".
He wouldn't tell the family until the next day his sister kept bugging him and he finally told her that he wants 10,000 Christmas cards by Christmas. He doesn't want to tell anyone, because he wants it to be a miracle. So I am asking for your help!
Please send a card to the address at the bottom of the screen, and pass this along to anyone you know that will do the same. If we all pitch in and spend just a moment filling out this card, and saying a prayer for this young man, we can all be a blessing to him. What a small thing for us, but such a big thing for him! Thank you for you help, and have a blessed Christmas season,
Sincerely,
Debbie Miller
Please send to:
Nick Waters
304 Meadows Point
Canton, Ga. 30115
Origins: In December 2004 this curious request for Christmas cards began arriving in our inbox. Unlike many a "languishing child requests cards" entreaty, this one was on the up-and-up — there is such a child, and both his condition and request are as described.
Nick Waters is a 15-year-old boy who attends Dean Rusk Middle School in Canton, GA. (We know the e-mail says he's 13, but folks at his school say he's 15.)
He has Holt-Oram Syndrome, an inherited disorder that results in abnormalities of the upper limbs and heart. In Nick's case, it caused him to come into this world almost armless. (Identifying him as "born without arms," as the e-mail does, isn't technically the truth but is its actuality — though the lad does have two very small limbs, they are not functional.) He is unable to speak and communicates through a computer using his feet. He is now in the 8th grade.
The youngster's desire to receive 10,000 Christmas cards was indeed real, and was broadcast by at least a few radio stations, such as K98 Radio in Rome, GA.
However, although the request was genuine, the boy's goal has already been met ten times over. Quoting Nick's father, who penned this 27 December 2004 entry on the child's site:
The total that made it to him by Christmas day is 104,972!
Thank You!
By February 2006, young Nick had received more than 145,000 cards from around the world, which was the 10,000 Christmas greetings he was hoping for, and 135,000 more. The danger with such appeals is they don't magically end when the need is fulfilled. (To gain a better appreciation of how much havoc good intentions can wreak even when the appeal is valid, see the horrendous tale of what Craig Shergold and his family have endured thanks to that lad's years-ago request for cards. The Shergold family had to move because of the influx of well-intentioned mail — if that's not being killed with kindness, I don't know what is.)
Although neither the boy nor his family has as yet requested folks stop sending cards, their initial goal has long since been reached. Those moved by the boy's appeal may wish to refrain from sending additional Christmas greetings to Nick Waters or asking friends and co-workers to send theirs, lest the desire to do good backfire by creating an unmanageable flood of mail that will prove a burden rather than an assistance to the Waters family.
Barbara "muddied Waters" Mikkelson
Last updated: 6 February 2007
The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/medical/nickwaters.asp
He has Holt-Oram Syndrome, an inherited disorder that results in abnormalities of the upper limbs and heart. In Nick's case, it caused him to come into this world almost armless. (Identifying him as "born without arms," as the 
Sources:
