If your eyes started to glaze over, I understand. These are organizations listed with the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy.
They
do not list funds started for individual families or smaller funds
selling ribbons, wristbands or bumper stickers, and there are plenty of
those, but I won’t list them here.
I would like to focus on one or two in particular in the above list; let's begin with "Sandy Hook Promise".
This fund has been the topic of discussion among Newtown residents: Link to Sandy Hook Promise Facebook story
Sandy
Hook Promise has created a stir recently because there are two arms of
the organization, one for assisting families and the other for lobbying.
Sandy Hook Promise has not disclosed, to my knowledge, the
amount of money they have collected for either arm of the fund. I
called the main number to see if they would tell me and the volunteer I
spoke with said she "couldn't say", either because she really had no
clue, or she was instructed not to. People in Newtown are apparently
starting to ask questions, at least concerning the appropriation of all
that freaking money!
Looking at the committee in charge of the United Way 10 Million Dollar mega fund, we see a few familiar faces:
* Former US Senator Joe Lieberman;
* Father Weiss of St Rose of Lima;
* Benjamin Spragg, former Newtown finance director;
* Attorney Anne Ragusa;
* Dr Charles Herrick, Danbury Hospital Psychiatric Chair;
* And last but not least: Joseph DiCandido, President of Nutek Aerospace Corp.
Who
the hell is he?? All the rest are to be expected I suppose, we've got
Israel, the Vatican, a couple of locals, the Pharmaceutical industry
and... the Military Industrial Complex I guess.
Joseph
DiCandido seems way out of left field, I wonder why they couldn't
include a janitor or lunchroom worker on the roster? As it is, the
money is not fit to be in the hands of anyone unless they are already
rich.
Poor people couldn’t possibly have any insight as to
where this money could be best spent in the community. Newtown isn’t
the kind of place where you see many poor people running around anyway,
so perhaps this group represents the demographic well enough.
Speaking
of demographics, let's take a look at the Fairfield County Community
Foundation, also accepting donations on behalf of victims. On their
About page, you will find that they are sitting on top of at least 150
million dollars. Yes, that's right, the county in Connecticut where the
shooting took place is itself very well set with its own charitable
organization that could easily afford to pay for therapy, scholarships,
families utility bills and any number of other things is holding its
hand out for more from the public.
Financial Information
Keep
in mind that charitable orgs don't just let the money sit in some dusty
old bank account or savings and loan, oh no, they are invested in CD's,
mutual funds, and any number of other products in order to generate
more income. The rich get richer. (Tax Free!)
In this case
capitalizing on the mirage of dead children. (The last I looked, there
is still no publicly available physical evidence proving anyone was
actually killed that day…but I digress.)
In an article that
appeared in the Denver Post December 19th, Kim White, from Santa
Clarita, CA , who started, "Sandy Hook Elementary Donation" one of the
"grassroots" Sandy donation pages on Facebook, was quoted as saying:
"Even
though they don't know these kids, every single person was just
devastated by what happened, everybody was just crying and sobbing about
this tragedy, and I just decided to put this page up for them."
On
her Facebook page she urges people to donate directly to the Sandy Hook
PTA, but also has a PayPal account. White said that as of Wednesday
afternoon, she hadn't received any donations through the service --
except for $5 from her daughter Jenna, 8, who contributed her tooth
fairy money.
One may assume that her Facebook friends were so
blinded by their veil of tears that they failed to notice the parents of
the slain children appeared on television rather well equipped to deal
with the demands of being national representatives for the gun control
agenda, but that's neither here nor there.
What Ms. White was
describing was unchecked human empathy, and the impetus behind the
waves of cash and prizes being thrown at Newtown.
"I feel really bad, so I'm going to donate some money, then it won't hurt so much."
Virtual pain assuaged by fiat currency. Only in America!
I
said I wouldn't cover the myriad individual family funds, and I will
not renege on that promise, but I would like to share a tidbit about
one, and that is the dawnhochspungmemorialfund.org, started by her
family to provide scholarships for students from her alma mater
Naugatuck High School.
It is unclear how big a role consultants
are playing in this fundraising extravaganza, but there appears to be
at least a bit of that going on behind the scenes.
Dawn Hochsprung's memorial had a tie-in with California Pizza Oven on March 8th:
"Just print out this voucher and take it in to any CPO location in CT and 20% of your check will be donated to Dawn's fund!"
I don't know about you guys, but the last thing I want to be reminded of while dining on pizza is a mass shooting.
Another somewhat off-the-wall corporate tie-in was the Sandy Hook Nascar:
"A
week before the car was unveiled and NASCAR's charitable drive was made
public, a contingent of NASCAR officials that included Helton, Davis,
Waltrip and NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France flew to Newtown, Conn.,
and held an emotional meeting in private with town officials, first
responders, and several of the families of the victims to share their
plans.
"When we walked into that room, and seven of the families
that lost children in that shooting were sitting on the front row
looking at you, first of all, that was very hard to keep your
composure," Waltrip said. "But as we spoke, those crying faces turned to
smiles."
"They're huge NASCAR fans up in that part of the
country, and they got to realize that they're going to have a car in the
Daytona 500 and it lit ’em up. It made me so proud that I was there
to be part of such a special announcement."
Maybe I'm just old
fashioned, but I cannot imagine parents being "lit up" upon hearing
that the memory of their murdered child would be exploited at a car
race. Not all family members are taking all this sitting down, however.
Cristina
Lafferty Hassinger, daughter of principal Dawn Hochsprung who died in
the shooting, voiced her frustration on her Facebook and Twitter account
about United Way of Western not releasing funds to the victims
families:
United Way of Western Holds Back Donations
According
to the recent March 17th article in the Hartford Courant, about 15
million dollars has been raised so far by the various charities, spread
out over 60 funds, but they are not altogether certain of the total.
"There
is a lot of money out there coming from a lot of places," said William
Rubenstein, commissioner of the state Department of Consumer Protection.
"Keeping track of all that is virtually impossible."
(EDITOR'S
NOTE: Virtually impossible? Like the money raised by Bill Clinton for
Haiti? Like the money raised for Hurricane Sandy victims? The scams
never stop... )
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED
Follow the Money in the Sandy Hook Scam
http://www.insanemedia.net/follow-the-money-sandy-hook-charitable-funds-awash-in-donations/2541
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