COLORADO SPRINGS — There is ongoing controversy over donations for victims of the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs.
A group of just over a half dozen victims say they are being retraumatized by the handling of donations intended to help them recover from the tragedy.
“It should not be show me the receipts. It should not be let me check with my board members,” said survivor, Wyatt Kent.
Approaching seven months since the attack, the group of survivors along family of victims who died in the tragedy rallied outside of the Colorado Springs City Hall.
They say the Colorado Healing Fund is holding donation money meant for them.
“These people just need to release the money that was raised so that everybody can go on and heal however they need to,” said Adriana Vance, the mother of Raymond Vance who was one of the five people shot and killed.
The Colorado Healing Fund provided information to News 5 showing there has been $3.2 million collected by the non-profit and just over $2 million have been disbursed to victims and programs to aid them.
They say there is a reason to maintain a pool of money.
Victim response experts created their model to address the short-term, intermediate, and long-term needs of victims.
In an interview back in January the Colorado Healing Fund Executive Director Jordan Finegan said, “We want to make sure to honor donor intent at all times.”
The group of victims at the rally want a policy change to help them deal with the financial hardships they are facing in the wake of the mass shooting.
Survivor John Arcediano said, “We will continue to fight until the Colorado Healing Fund does release the funds.”
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