$13 million in donations collected for Uvalde families affected by Robb school shooting

Nusaiba Mizan, Austin American-Statesman
·5 min read
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More than $13 million has been raised through five accounts for Uvalde families affected by the May 24 mass shooting, according to a Uvalde committee's news release shared by Austin-based OneStar Foundation. That foundation worked with the First State Bank of Uvalde to set up the Robb School Memorial Fund.

The five accounts are:

These organizations are working with the National Compassion Fund to pool the money, develop protocols with community input for fund distribution, and distribute the money within several months to families in need. The fund will close on Oct. 20.

The National Compassion Fund has a track record of helping communities organize the distribution of donations after mass shootings, such as at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in 2018 and the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla., in 2016.

Unimaginable loss: A look at the 19 children and two teachers who were killed in the Uvalde, Texas, shooting

Once a community-agreed protocol is developed for fund distribution, applications will open. The National Compassion Fund has a multilevel process with outside experts to vet the applications.

A steering committee for the fund, made up of primarily local residents, released a draft protocol in English and Spanish on Thursday.

The people eligible to apply for funds are:

  • The legal heirs of the 21 people killed

  • people physically injured

  • people experiencing psychological trauma, other than first responders, present at Robb Elementary at 11:27 a.m. on May 24 when the shooting began or faced imminent risk of death from being shot by the gunman

Uvalde resident Mickey Gerdes, once a Robb Elementary School student, is serving as the committee chair after someone recommended he take on the role. He was formerly the school board president for six years.

There will be public town hall meetings on July 19 at 6 p.m. and Aug. 11 at 11:30 a.m. at the Uvalde Fairplex to give feedback on the protocols for determining who is eligible and how much money they should receive. Registration for the town halls is online. Uvalde community members can also email the National Compassion Fund to submit feedback.

The committee will then incorporate that feedback and open up applications to everyone eligible to apply. It is expected that the application window will open Sept. 8 and close Oct. 6, with money to be distributed in November.

"It's just a starting point, and we fully expect that we're going to hear from the community," Gerdes said. "There'll be public comment, and the community's going to tell us what they think. We'll listen to that, and we'll just do the best we can to see if we can come up with a protocol that then fits all of that input from the various sources."

He said the committee wants to honor donors' intentions and make sure the money reaches the people whom donors want it to reach.

More: Matthew McConaughey returns to Uvalde hometown to pay respects after Robb Elementary school shooting

"Almost immediately after the event, wonderfully kind-hearted people all over the world started pouring money into the community," Gerdes said.

Austin Dickson, CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, said people across the country came together in heartwarming ways to donate to their fund: A youth group in Pittsburgh held a car wash, an Oregon resident has been selling T-shirts, and a Florida film festival donated its proceeds, to name a few examples.

"We opened up the funds thinking we're the community foundation for the Hill Country, and we were going to create an outlet for local donors in the Hill Country to pitch in for their neighbors in Uvalde," Dickson said. "While that happened, what also happened is that we started receiving donations from all over Texas and throughout the country, and even Canada and other countries as well."

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Dickson said the emergency fund for Uvalde is the largest they've ever managed.

The foundation, headquartered in Kerrville, serves a 10-county region including Uvalde County. The organization previously has awarded grants to the Uvalde library and to a low-income health clinic in Uvalde, and it awarded scholarships to graduating Uvalde students going on to college, Dickson said. The foundation will keep its Uvalde Strong Survivors Fund open for donations until Sept. 30.

More: Uvalde says goodbye to the first of 21 victims of Robb Elementary School shooting

Most individual donors donated to the survivors' fund, Dickson said, but many corporate donors — such as Kroger, Starbucks and Macy's — donated to the Uvalde Strong Fund designated for community organizations and initiatives.

The San Antonio Area Foundation has an additional fund with the NBA and Texas NBA teams to provide long-term support for Uvalde.

Gerdes said he would be surprised if you could find somebody in Uvalde who isn't connected in some way to those who were affected.

"It's just a small town. And whether our kids play in sports together, or coach the kids or knew the teachers or saw them in the grocery store — whatever it may be — it's one of those things where it's hard to imagine you could find somebody in Uvalde that isn't directly impacted. Or indirectly impacted, for that matter," Gerdes said.

The donation accounts will be open for several more months as more corporate donations come in and the community develops the protocol for the fund's distribution.

Contact Nusaiba Mizan at nmizan@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @nusaiblah.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: $13 million in donations collected for Robb school shooting victims