TENSIONS and speculations about the destination for funds raised following the May 27 Bochara car accident which killed four people have prompted one of the parents of the deceased to defend her actions.
LeeAnn Elmes, mother of Joshua Elmes, 15, said she has been surprised and disappointed that her well-intentioned actions of setting up a fundraiser to help the families have received unfounded criticisms and presumptions of mishandling in the weeks that have followed.
With some in the community still in shock or numbed at the scale of the tragedy and the profusion of emotions, stories and rumours surrounding it, Ms Elmes said she felt unfairly accused in respect of the eventual destination of the monies collected and wanted to clear the air about her motivations.
“I didn’t know (at the time) that the TAC paid for funerals,” she said.
“On the Sunday night (May 28), early Monday morning I set up this MyCause fund and thought, well, we’ll help out the families because they’ll probably need it.”
After learning about funeral costs being covered, she said her first reaction was to consider the possibility of redirecting the money for something community-based that was appropriate to the generosity and motivations of those who had given, including her long-standing idea of a youth centre.
But before any decision was made, she said she contacted the other families affected to see what they thought was best, given even counselling and medical costs were also taken care of.
“I asked all the families, and I’ve got actual text messages that I’ve sent to them,” Ms Elmes said.
She said she asked them how they wanted the money to be directed, be it still to all the families or a youth centre, or a 50/50 split between the two.
She said all but one family replied to the latter idea that they “were happy with that” and with the only question mark left over the wishes of the remaining family, she did her best to establish contact but received no reply.
What happened next was a shock to her.
“Next minute on Facebook I’m being blasted like I’m some … sicko,” Ms Elmes said.
“(It’s alleged) that I’m taking all the money for myself – (but) the money’s been sitting in an account. It’s not my account, it’s a MyCause account. Until I tell them what accounts to put it into, they weren’t going to do anything with it.”
She said she never saw the fundraiser for her own benefit whatsoever – “I don’t need the money” – and hoped the total amount raised (just over $16,000) was something that would be put to good positive use, with the most recent decision to simply split the money equally among the families, with MyCause officially informed late last week of where to send it.
“We need to rally round as a community now,” Ms Elmes said.
“What has happened is all the money’s going back to all the families.”
She said different families were making different decisions with how to use it, including some deciding to still personally direct some of the funds towards a youth centre, but wanted to make it clear she had been as transparent as possible from the start about what would happen with the money raised and wanted to thank the generosity of those who had given.
“The money is there and people have been really great … and I thank them for that,” Ms Elmes said.
“It hasn’t just come from Hamilton, it’s come from the UK, it’s come from South Africa … from people all over the world.”
