As Promised, an Update on the Jacob Rogers Funeral Fund
I wanted to update those of you who donated to the funeral of Jacob Rogers last week with a few more specifics. For those of you who don't know, Jacob was a Tennessee teen tragically driven to suicide after years of anti-gay bullying.
With the goal of $5,000, readers of Towleroad, The Stranger, and Joe.My.God raised almost $9,000 in less than three hours. After we saw that we had hit the $5K mark, we pulled our donation buttons off the sites but the cash had come in so quickly that we raised almost double the goal.
As I said in the original post, the extra funds will be split between GLSEN, Trevor Project, the ACLU, and the It Gets Better Project this week, once the accounting is finished.
Jacob's funeral was on Saturday. We have not heard any reports on it. The fund that the money went to is legally obligated to pay out $5K directly to the funeral home. Any extra funds not taken up by costs will go to the family.
Because of those who contributed, we were able to help Jacob's family afford a funeral. Thank you for your generosity. And thanks to Dan Savage's Seattle newspaper The Stranger, which kindly helped set up the PayPal, and facilitated getting money to the funeral home in Tennessee in time for Jacob's burial.
I was so impressed when I realized I couldn't donate money because the donations had exceeded the need by such a margin! It seems like many of us are sick of children being driven to suicide. Thank you for updating.
Posted by: bruce | Dec 13, 2011 7:57:42 PM
Thank you so much for doing this. I don't always hear where my donations go to, but in this instance, I totally trust they were properly appropriated. God bless Jacob and his family.
Posted by: shle896 | Dec 13, 2011 8:24:02 PM
The best money I have ever spent. Thank you for giving me a chance to help.
Posted by: ashton cuz | Dec 13, 2011 8:58:38 PM
How amazing and wonderful that so many generous people, and I'm assuming the majority are members of the gay community, have stepped forward. It is sad that we couldn't have been of help to Jacob before he took his own life. How grand of all of you for taking the time and effort especially in these difficult economic downturn. Ashton, Shle896 and everyone else, thank you so much. Very kind.
Posted by: OS2Guy | Dec 13, 2011 10:26:55 PM
By the time I saw the article the donation link had been removed so I redirected my donation to the Trevor Project. How wonderful that so many people cared about this young man but how unfortunate the circumstances. This is just another reason why out role models are so necessary and important to young people - had Jacob had a gay accepting mentor or someone "like him" to look up to things might have turned out differently.
Posted by: Tyron | Dec 14, 2011 8:57:21 AM
How about supporting the GLBT National Help Center?
http://www.glnh.org
Posted by: CGD | Dec 14, 2011 10:12:55 AM