Thursday, 18 April 2013

$200K Raised in 1 Day for Mom, Daughter Hurt at Boston Marathon


$200K Raised in 1 Day for Mom, Daughter Hurt at Boston Marathon

Bostongofundme
That's Celeste Corcoran and her daughter Sydney in the photo above. They went to the Boston Marathon finish line Monday afternoon to watch a relative complete the legendary race. When a bomb went off just after the marathon's four-hour mark, shrapnel tore through their legs.
Both of Celeste's legs were amputated below the knee on Monday night. Sydney, a high school senior, suffered deep injuries and massive blood loss of her own. Mother and daughter are undergoing further operations on Wednesday at Boston Medical Center.
Celeste is a hairdresser by trade, and relies on her feet to work. She may never be able to do her job the same again. Both women live on the second floor of their Boston home. Their medical bills will likely be astronomical through more treatment and recovery. Physical and psychological damage aside, what will they do financially over the coming days, weeks, months and years?
This should help: A viral crowdfunding campaign has raised more than $200,000 in just over a day online.
It's far from the only crowdfunding campaign that aims to help victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. A campaign for Jeff Bauman, who was photographed being hustled away from the scene in a wheelchair, has raised more than $20,000. A campaign for Roseann Sdoia, another race spectator has raised nearly $50,000. There are others as well, but the Corcorans' appears to be far and away the most prolific.
How did that happen? Alyssa Carter isn't sure.
She's a cousin of Celeste and Sydney and started the GoFundMe campaign about 24 hours after they were injured. She set an initial goal of $20,000, hoping more realistically for "like $5,000."
They're a big clan, 40 first cousins in all, and she posted the link to the family's group Facebookpage. Folks posted it to their own pages as well, and she used her savvy as an Internet marketer to further spread the word.
"I wanted to make something easy for people to share on Facebook, or pin or tweet," Carter toldMashable from the parking lot at Boston Medical Center, where she'd just arrived to visit Celeste and Sydney.
But Carter never expected anything like this. The campaign has since received 15,000 Facebook likes and been tweeted more than 600 times. TV host Chelsea Handler somehow found it and made a $25,000 donation of her own, according to Carter.
When the campaign started gaining momentum on Tuesday afternoon, Carter says family members were "literally refreshing the page every couple minutes and were just elated every time the number jumped." Another cousin called it a beacon of light on one of the family's darkest days.
"It's amazing what people can do," Carters say. "I'm just so grateful — there are no words for us to express our thanks enough."
Do you know of other crowdfunding campaigns for Boston Marathon victims? Please share them in the comments below.

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