Thirteen days ago: Saturday Aug. 9
11:48 a.m. to noon – An officer responds to a call of a sick person.
11:51 a.m. – Another call comes in about a robbery at a convenience store. The dispatcher gives a description of the robber and says the suspect is walking toward the Quick Trip convenience store.
12:01 p.m. – The officer encounters Michael Brown and a friend as they walk down a street. “Big Mike” Brown is shot to death as a result of the encounter.
FAST FORWARD TO TODAY —
- As of around noon, $235,010 had been raised for the safety of Officer Darren Wilson and his family, and to assist them with unavoidable expenses.
- As a result of the success and momentum of the fundraising which was initiated on GoFundMe four days ago, the friends, family, and supporters of Officer Wilson have made a pragmatic change.
The new GoFundMe site through Shield of Hope is at https://www.gofundme.com/OfficerWilsonFundraiser
- “The old (home) page now says
Donations are Complete! The organizer has stopped donations
That statement means that the initial setup of that GoFundMe account has been replaced with the new GoFundMe site through Shield of Hope. It does not mean that donations are no longer being accepted.
The Shield of Hope is a Certified Charity on GoFundMe and is available via public search with GoFundMe
The Shield of Hope is a nonprofit organization. Donations made through the new page will serve precisely the same purpose, being distributed to Officer Darren Wilson and his immediate family for potential legal fees, relocation, and living expenses. Donations will also be tax deductible.
- The admins of the site, in an effort to avoid unnecessary concern, also explain as follows:
With the creation of a new page, the donation amount shown will initially reset to zero., Please do not confuse this with the current donation amounts received on this page. (they are referring to the running total for the original account where many of us donated)
- All funds received through the initial GoFundMe project will be disbursed to Officer Wilson and his family, and Shield of Hope has also offered to post on the new pages all of the funds received through the initial GoFundMe account.
They provide this list of current/new contacts for this project:
The Ferguson Police Department has requested that all donations that supporters may wish to mail be made payable to “Shield of Hope” and mailed to Shield of Hope, 9620 Lackland Rd., St. Louis MO 63114.
New GoFundMe site through Shield of Hope:https://www.gofundme.com/OfficerWilsonFundraiser
Mailing Address for All Mail in Donations:
Shield of Hope
9620 Lackland Road
St. Louis, MO 63114
Phone Number: 314-423-8003Contact E-mail Regarding T-shirts and questions about the original GoFundMe page: [email protected]
They will “continue to operate the ‘Support Darren Wilson’ Facebook page and TeeSpring page independently” and post updates via the Facebook page.
These folks have done a stunning job in less than five days – in launching an explosively effective point for Americans to push back against destructive political and legal influences which, in this case, are focused on the destruction of one man and his family.
Implementing and sustaining this kind of effort is beyond demanding, personally and financially, for the people who have done the setup, are managing Facebook maintenance, are seeking to respond with wisdom against the attacks they are facing and now – due to the success of the effort – they are doing a re-launch with some refinements.
Let’s do everything we can to assist them in making this transition without losing momentum: sharing accurate information is an important part of that effort.
The New and Improved GoFundMe Link is HERE
God bless them, everyone. God bless Darren Wilson and his family. And may God have mercy on us all.
