Sandy Hook Fund Distribution Causes Frustration In Newtown

The Sandy Hook Fund was the topic of a town hall meeting in Newtown on Thursday. Victims’ families and other members of the community expressed outrage and frustration regarding the manner in which the funds collected would be distributed.

The main complaint by the community members and the victim’s families regarding the distribution of the $7.7 million has been that the process has been “agonizing and not nearly transparent enough,” reports NBC Connecticut.

The community members applauded Caryn Kaufman who stated, “This process is re-victimizing the victims,”

Rob Accomando, the founder of the My Sandy Hook Family Fund, said that many people at the meeting wished the fund had been dealt with “in a much more transparent way.” His fund has already given $1.6 million to families affected by the tragedy.

One of Accomando’s concerns is about what is to happen to the funds raised in the future. Kaufman questioned how many donations were collected since March.

A draft plan for the Sandy Hook Fund was put forward earlier in the evening proposing to give the 26 victims’ families $281,000 each, while $150,000 would go to the wounded teachers and $20,000 the families of the students who escaped.

An outraged Ken Feinberg, the distributions committee adviser asked, “Is the money adequate? No, it’s not adequate. It’s never adequate!” It was his consulting company that helped oversee the victims of the 2001, terrorist attacks, the Boston Marathon bombing, and the Aurora, Colorado theater shooting.

The decision as to how the funds from the Sandy Hook Fund raised, which is in excess of $11.4 million, will be divided in the following way: 70 percent will go to the families most affected while the remainder 30 percent will go towards community purposes. A separate foundation will decide how it will be used.

Until the final draft of the plan is released on Monday, many of the victims’ families declined to comment.

[Image via Gina Jacobs]