…and now, a little feel-good, heart-warming story to round off your Friday afternoon.
You might remember that Duncan Storrar, the bloke who was doing it a bit tough and made the apparent grave error of attending a Q&A taping, asking a question a politician couldn’t give a straight answer to, and was then subject to a horrific witch hunt perpetrated mostly by NewsCorp, was the subject of a rather successful GoFundMe campaign.
The campaign, started by people who simply wanted to give him a hand, exploded literally overnight and wound up accumulating $60,051 in just 16 days.
Today, the campaign posted an update revealing exactly what Duncan plans to do with the cash, and it’s really, really nice, you guys.
A total of $11,000 of those funds will be donated to charity, with $6,000 (or the price of a toaster, wink wink) will be going to Father Bob Maguire‘s foundation; a group that deals with the homeless, and particularly with disaffected youth.
A further $5,000 will be going to the Men’s Shed that took Duncan in and sheltered him during the media shitstorm that sought to discredit and smear him at every possible opportunity.
The remaining funds, according to the statement, will be placed into a trust fund, that will cover all the costs of Duncan’s children’s secondary education, as well as assist with their general upbringing and wellbeing.
The statement, in full, reads as follows:
“Hi all donators,
Thank you so much for your patience. It has taken quite a while working behind the scenes with multiple parties to reach a good outcome for Duncan from the fundraiser.After the gobsmacking generosity of the Australian people, Duncan has decided that the money will not be spent on himself.To that end Duncan contacted Justice Connect (a legal aid service) who referred the matter to Best Hooper, a firm of Melbourne lawyers: http://www.besthooper.com.au/ who kindly offered to assist Duncan. They will act on a pro bono basis to set up a trust for fund dispersal. The trustees will be Duncan’s brother, and Mr. Jim Robinson, one of the Partners at Best Hooper. Jim has decades of experience as a legal practitioner, and has acted as a trustee on many occasions, including the “Bushfire’s baby” trust, along with the Legal Institute Superannuation Scheme fund.The majority of the money is to be retained to cover costs for his young children’s future secondary education. Duncan also requested some of the funds be given to charity, as indicated below, and the rest will be retained to be spent for the maintenance, education or benefit of the children.You may be pleased to hear that Duncan will indeed buy a $6,000 toaster. Well, an oven, anyway. Duncan has decided to donate $6,000 to The Father Bob Foundation to assist in buying an oven to cook food for the homeless – of which they are in desperate need. This is to acknowledge the toaster that was originally suggested in the campaign. Duncan feels that it would do a lot more good in the hands of The Father Bob Foundation.The F.B.F. do great work and strive towards Father Bob’s vision of ending homelessness; giving all kids a fair start to life and feeding those who aren’t guaranteed a meal.And they have a go fund me as well if you want to follow Duncan’s lead and donate there. They are a great bunch and would be stoked with any donations that came in.Duncan has also decided to donate $5,000 to a Men’s Shed in the rural town where Duncan took refuge when the media storm arose in certain newspapers.We would like to thank you once again for opening your hearts to someone who dared ask a simple question of his government.He is still waiting for an answer.N&S”
This is an absolutely massive outcome; arguably the ideal one for this situation. And it’s a super nice way to close the book on one of the year’s most curious and interesting stories.
Bloody good on you, Duncan. Here’s to you, and to your kids.
Source: GoFundMe.
