Post #716185 by Tangaroa-Ru on Tue, May 6, 2014 9:55 PM

I spoke with Lynn (of Hidden L.A., who organized the fundraiser) about two weeks ago. She has done a lot of fundraising and public awareness campaigns all over Los Angeles, with positive results. There was a good reason Otto von Stroheim suggested getting her involved. (They are old friends.) She did a great job of trying to help our local Tiki community get Rufus relocated. Through her organization she found professional aquatic movers who offered to donate moving services, tank builders who offered to help with the creation of a new tank at a reasonable price, and she communicated as well as she could with the Bahooka property owner and George (Rufus' longtime caretaker). She also created an excellent fundraiser which raised a couple thousand dollars. That money still sits in the fundraising account FOR NOW, because Lynn feels that IF there is ANY CHANCE AT ALL that Rufus might "resurface" in the next few months, and we still have any chance of buying him and moving him to Damon's, that money will be needed immediately, and there wouldn't be time to do another fundraiser. I'm going to talk to her next week to see how long she feels the money should be kept for this possibility. IF this is the end of the story as far as all of us seeing Rufus again (and I sure hope it isn't), Lynn will have to figure out how to refund everyone's contributions. As I said, she has never had a fundraiser/cause go south like this. New territory to maneuver, including the refund situation.