Donations Top $1 Million for Amish Community in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania

Since the Oct. 2 shooting of 10 Amish schoolgirls, sympathetic people have sent donations to help the community in Nickel Mines, Pa., pay hospital bills and build a new school. For the past week, three Mennonite groups with close ties to the Amish have received those donations. The Nickel Mines Accountability Committee has now been organized to administer the money. Herman Bontrager, normally the CEO of Goodville Mutual Insurance Company, is a volunteer spokesman for the committee. He spoke with Newsweek’s Susannah Meadows from his office in New Holland, Pa.

Bontrager said more than $1 million had been donated so far, but he added that the committee does not know how much more may be given. Many of the hospitals treating the girls have offered to waive their bills. One hospital contacted an Amish leader to say it would not charge for services rendered, and other hospitals followed. Bontrager said the Amish response was, “We don’t expect you to do that.” The hospital replied, “We need to do this for ourselves.”

Bontrager said the committee does not yet know exactly what the hospitals’ offers cover. It is unclear whether they include only hospital billing or also other services, such as physicians and anesthesiologists. He also said the committee is not assuming that all long-term costs for some of the girls will be forgiven, since their prognoses are not yet known.

Bontrager said the money could be used for medical expenses for victims, including those who died and those who were injured, and for short-term and long-term care. It could also pay for transportation and lodging for family members visiting hospitalized children, and it could go toward making schools or homes handicap-accessible.

Regarding a new school, Bontrager said the community has received far more offers of help than it can use. Outside groups had offered to demolish the damaged school, and the community accepted that offer. Bontrager said he believes the Amish will want to build the new school themselves, and that it will matter to them to know they rebuilt it with their own hands.

Bontrager said the Amish have been clear from the beginning that they do not want to turn away the generosity of others. However, they have said that any extra money will not be used to benefit the Amish community beyond needs arising from the tragedy. Contributions may instead go to service providers that help people who cannot pay their own way, such as hospital charity funds, which reflects a commitment to sharing with those in need (Hebrews 13:16).

The Amish have also said they would like some of the money to go to the family of the killer. A bank account was set up specifically for his family. The accountability committee, speaking for the church leadership, has said that if that family has needs beyond the account, some of the money designated for Nickel Mines victims should go to them, and that the family is included in the committee’s definition of victims. Bontrager said conversations are underway about the family’s needs, such as scholarship funds for the children, and that the committee will contribute as those needs become clear.

Asked whether the Amish are aware of how people have been moved by the community’s generosity toward the killer’s family, Bontrager said he had heard them discuss it. He said they recognize the event affects many people through grief and through its potential to teach. He said he was sure many of them felt that deeply and were grateful. He added that an Amish person would be reluctant to say, “We’re teaching the world something.” Instead, he said, they would say, “We just did what we think we need to do as people of faith. Our actions are more important than our words.”

Source: Read the original report