WAUKESHA, Wis. — The fund created for the victims of the Waukesha Christmas parade tragedy has now surpassed $2 million dollars.
Organizers of the United for Waukesha Community Fund say they want to start getting the money donated into the hands of victims in the next few weeks. Many in the community donated to the fund set up by the Waukesha County Community Foundation and United Way.
"We knew we wanted to do something that was trusted by people who were making donations and really that is what United Way and the Waukesha County Community Foundation does day in and day out," Shelli Marquardt of the Waukesha County Community Foundation said.
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The money raised by the fund is housed within the Waukesha County Community Foundation. A committee of people, which includes the mayor's office, the county executive's office, the school district, and community organizations, will decide how funds will be given out.
"We are in the preliminary stages on how that will be distributed," Marquardt said. "We are really modeling it, unfortunately, after other tragedies that have happened around the country."
The first tier will be the families of those who died. The second will be hospitalized victims, and the third will be non-hospitalized victims who received medical treatment.
"What they have done in other communities when it comes to hospitalization (is) they have actually looked at number of days hospitalized and used that as the metric for deciding or determining different payouts," Marquardt said. "So it is not going to be based on a broken arm versus a fractured skull. It is going to be based on hospitalization days."
The Boston Marathon bombing fund gave out $80 million dollars to more than 200 victims. The United for Waukesha County Foundation says they are still raising money and still trying to determine the number of victims. This will help them determine the metric that will be used to compensate victims.
"There is a whole category of individuals that seek or sought medical attention, and we aren't sure how many will be in that category," Marquardt said.
The mayor's office hopes to have some of those answers by the end of the week so money can start going out to help the victims soon.
