LGBTQ-Owned Auto Shop Raises $25,000 For Club Q Victims’ Funerals: Donors Raised $700,000 In 2 Days

In a recent spate of events, the Club Q shooting on November 20 has garnered national interest from various quarters. Five people were killed in the hate shootout at the LGBTQ Club in Colorado Springs.

Twenty-five more people were injured as well, out of which seven seem to be critical. A few hours after the news of the shootout spread like wildfire, one of the owners of an LGBTQ-owned auto shop Good Judy Garage, Faith Haug, in Sheridan, decided to start a fundraiser. Faith Haug co-owns the garage shop with CC Haug, her partner.

Fundraiser Started By Garage Owner A Success

After hearing about the shootout at Club Q, one of the owners from the same community wanted to donate to the victims. However, there was no clue about how she could go about it.

The club happens to be quite popular with the LQBTQ community and so many of the members of the community happen to be very much saddened by the event.

Without getting much luck offline, Faith Haug started the online fundraiser to cover the expenses for the funeral of the victims.

Haug started the GoFundMe campaign, which gathered $25,000 in two hours. That was quite a feat that Haug achieved in that short time. She posted all the details about the campaign on her Instagram page, Good Judy Garage, which already had around 4,000 followers by that time.

After a few hours, the donations touched $50,000 approximately. Haug was pleasantly surprised by the huge contributions that came her way. The funds have been gaining traction from thereon.

Later, the amount seemed to be hovering around 400k. The campaign has managed to raise at least $700,000 in a matter of two days, to be exact. Amazingly, over 17,000 donors have donated so far. This shows that the LGBTQ community happens to be close-knit, otherwise such collections would not have been possible. She also praised the power of social media.

Haug In Talks With LGBTQ Law Firm To Transfer The Sum

Elle Billman, one of the donors commented online, that this is the power of the so-called queer community. It is a term that the normal genders often use to address members of the LGBTQ community.

Sonya Murphy, another LGBTQ member said that the victims could have been one of their family members as well. Thus, it goes without saying that the entire community is baffled and saddened at the same time, due to this hate-based crime.

The entire community jumps in to help when something happens to a member or any business of the community in Colorado Springs. At present, Faith Haug is in talks with a legal expert to transfer the money to the families of the victims, so that they can perform the last rites in a proper manner.

According to Haug, she intends to pay the sum to the families of the dead ones first, followed by paying the medical bills for all those who are injured in the shootout. As the sum is quite high, many legal issues may crop up, thus making legal intervention a necessity.

No matter how large the sum, the funeral expenses can spiral into six figures for the victims. Additionally, medical bills can also cross the six-figure mark. According to Haug, the sum looks huge, but may not be sufficient after all. This is the first time in her life that she is dealing with a fundraising event with success.

Currently, Haug is busy settling the matter, so she has requested some patience from the concerned parties. Such is the power of the community that has made all the collections possible.