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Public Invited To Offer Input, Ideas For Dayton Oregon District Tragedy Fund

Jerry Kenney
/
WYSO

A charity fund established after the Oregon District mass shooting has so far collected nearly $3 million. Later in September, Miami Valley residents will have a chance to weigh in on how the fund’s dollars should be distributed.

The Dayton Foundation set up the Oregon District Tragedy Fund in the wake of the August 4 shooting  to help the family members of the victims and offer financial assistance to people injured in the attack.

Now, the fund’s oversight committee is hosting a series of meetings to gather public input on the process.

Organizers say the committee has already received guidance from a national team of volunteer attorneys with expertise in victim-compensation funds, such as the ones set up after the Sept. 11 attacks and the Pulse Nightclub attack in Orlando.

The team’s guidance, along with public input gathered at the meetings, will help inform the criteria for who can apply to the Oregon District Tragedy Fund, and help decide how the money would be given to survivors.

The Oregon District Tragedy Fund meetings are scheduled for Monday, Sept. 16 from 10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m., and from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., at Sinclair Community College, 444 West Third Street, Building 12, Dayton, Ohio, 45402.

A sign language interpreter will be present at both sessions. Free parking for the sessions will be available under Building 12.

For more information about the public meetings, visit www.daytonfoundation.org or email TragedyFund@daytonfoundation.org.

The committee's Draft Final Protocol will be available to the public for review starting Monday, Sept. 16, 2019, at The Dayton Foundation website.

Members of the Community Oversight Committee include co-chairs Brother Raymond L. Fitz, former president of the University of Dayton, and physician Gary L. LeRoy, MD, associate dean for student affairs and admission at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, president-elect of the American Academy of Family Physicians and former chair of The Dayton Foundation Governing Board.

Moderating the public forums will be Kathy Hollingsworth, president of Innovative InterChange.

Copyright 2019 WYSO

Jess Mador comes to WYSO from Knoxville NPR-station WUOT, where she created an interactive multimedia health storytelling project called TruckBeat, one of 15 projects around the country participating in AIR's Localore: #Finding Americainitiative. Before TruckBeat, Jess was an independent public radio journalist based in Minneapolis. She’s also worked as a staff reporter and producer at Minnesota Public Radio in the Twin Cities, and produced audio, video and web stories for a variety of other news outlets, including NPR News, APM, and PBS television stations. She has a Master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York. She loves making documentaries and telling stories at the intersection of journalism, digital and social media.