Item: Two Chase Awards found to be phony/Rebecca Nappi, SR

More Info: The Chase Youth Awards have honored young people of achievement and integrity for 23 years. But one of this year’s winners, “Pete Hazel,” doesn’t exist. Another, a Rogers High School teen, does exist but much of his story was fictionalized. The nominations for the two winners were written by the same person, a Lewis and Clark High School student who completed them for a class assignment. More than 1,000 nominations were received, and 30 winners were chosen by community judges, including “Hazel,” who won the Jim Chase “Asset Builder” adult award.

Question: Do hoaxes like this do lasting damage to worthy programs?