Overview

William Lashua's Birthday was a flash mob campaign orchestrated in early September 2010 by 4chan users to celebrate the 90th birthday of William Lashua, a World War II veteran from Ashburnham, MA.

Background

On September 1st, 2010, an Anonymous member, presumably from the same town, took a picture of an event flyer announcing the 90th birthday of William Lashua and posted it on 4chan's /b/ board. The birthday celebration is scheduled to be held at the Ashburnham American Legion from 1 pm to 4 pm on September 4th, 2010.

Developments

Calling for other Anons to make Mr. Lashua the happiest man on his birthday, /b/ thread instantly caught on with other users and spread across other news aggregate hubsites and social networks like Gawker, Buzzfeed, Reddit and
Facebook Page.

On the same day, details of Mr. Lashua's birthday event was soon revealed:

William J Lashua
Ashburnham American Legion
132 Williams RD
Ashburnham, MA 01430

William's Grandson Responds

On September 2nd, Reddit user "HOLYSHITthrowaway" posted a thread titled I am William Lashua's Grandson. Please Read and the authenticity of his claim was verified by another staff member. In the post, he thanked everyone's support and generosity, but asked others to refrain from actually attending the event.

Kind folks of reddit, My family and I appreciate the outpouring of love and generosity. There has been a large misunderstanding. The poster which I'm told was found at the Gardner Stop & Shop was more a local notice for people that know him. It was in no way to indicate that he is alone. He has 7 children, many grandchildren, and even great grandchildren. In his younger years he was a foster parent to dozens of foster children. He is well liked in the community, and will be fully supported on his 90th birthday. I ask that if you don't know him, to not attend the party, as it is for his friends and family. The venue for the party is a very small hall, and will be full to capacity with people he knows and loves.

By all means, send cards and well wishes, but please refrain from sending gifts/strippers/cakes/candies/etc. and instead please make a donation in his name to a local vetrans charity.

Thank you again for all the love and well wishes, we certainly never expected this. You are awesome reddit, now please help me spread the word to other outlets and make sure this is a smaller, enjoyable party for him.

The Party

On September 4th, 2010, Redditor RubberDucky451 submitted an Imgur gallery of photographs taken at Lashua's birthday party (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post received mroe than 370 points (80% upvoted) on /r/reddit.com.^[3]

The following day, the AnonymousHasASoul YouTube channel uploaded a slideshow of photographs from the birthday party, which gathered more than 390,000 views and 700 comments within seven years (shown below.

Death

On May 31st, 2013, a poster claiming to be William Lashua's grandson/daughter posted a thread ^[1] to the 4chan board /q/ reporting his passing a week prior on May 23rd. The claim was verified with an Obituaries page on a local newspaper website, The Gardner News ^[2].

Search Interest

External References