Here’s what Missy had to say:
“For the last three years Dawn Marie has promoted Wrestlers Rescue as a charity to raise monies to help and support the health care needs of retired professional wrestlers. During that time Dawn has sent me numerous emails asking my help to spread word of her fund raising activities through my writings relating to this project. I duly obliged in most instances.
One of the primary benefactors was to be journeymen wrestler Dr. Death Steve Williams who sadly succumbed to cancer in December, 2009. Shortly after Doc’s passing I asked Dawn what she planned to do with the thousands of dollars she had raised—whether that would be in terms of covering funeral expenses for the family or a talked about trust fund for Doc’s son.
Dawn told me on-the-record in a January email, “We are talking with the family and trying to figure out the best way to use the dollars that weren’t used.â€
I asked Dawn again a few weeks later and received no response.
A few weeks after that I asked Dawn whether Wrestlers Rescue was in fact a registered charity and what other retired wrestlers she planned to help in the future. Dawn replied and told me that her representative would be in touch soon and furnish me with the information I requested.
Dawn’s rep later turned out to be her New Jersey based attorney. I was shocked to learn from said attorney that Wrestlers Rescue, after three years in operation, was NOT a registered not-for-profit nor were they willing to open their finance books to the general public or the people in the wrestling business who have helped them raise thousands of dollars in the name of a dying man.*
And so here we are today.
While Dawn’s passion may be viewed by some as admirable, she as the founder and chair of her organization, should be more forthcoming regarding the monies she has raised, nor should she falsely represent herself as a charity, just as she did last week when quoted in a New York Times article.
Is she stating that up until now, the supposed charity has been for profit? If so, who has profited from the proceeds of Wrestlers Rescue? If not, then why has the non-registered charity been so secretive regarding the proceeds of the monies raised?
Who has actually benefited from anything done by Wrestlers Rescue up to now? Check delivered, bills paid, someone rescued?
I hope that Dawn Marie will address these reasonable questions in a public forum very soon.
Now, Missy Hyatt’s comments, originally published at www.missyhyatt.net, which cover many of the “allegations” and provide insight into the work Dawn and her organization have done:
I hate how so many people jumped on the band wagon that Dawn is a fraud before they ever allowed her a forum to defend herself. I’m a personal friend of Dawn, so naturally I will defend her. People who are bashing Dawn forget to realize the expense of legal fees, corporation fees, phones, & misc. to maintain a charity . Guess who swallowed any losses & upstart fees to Wrestlers Rescue? DAWN!!!! What ever profits that trickled in with ebay sales, auctions, went in to some holding account. I know for a fact that Steve Williams was sent approximately $5000.00 to help off set mounting medical expenses prior to his untimely death. I know an additional $2000 was donated in conjunction from the Cauliflower Alley Club.
I am very upset that everybody who is associated with Dawn was lumped in as thieves or con artist on various message boards without anybody asking for a statement or any proof. To my knowledge, only one person in the wrestling business decided to distance them self based on the recent negative article that was circulating.
When Dawn filed for the 501(c)(3) paper work to become a non profit charity it needed a corporate structure to be shown in the paper work. This is why I am listed as secretary. I started all of that paperwork before having it out sourced to an attorney to be completed.
The 501(c)(3) filling is a long tedious headache of paper work to fill out and file. I believe it took Dawn almost a year to have it all sorted & filed. The actual 501(c)(3) company is listed as Pro Wrestling Releif, (Dawn already had Wrestlers Rescue LLC organized and filed as a for Profit so we could begin the work that needed to be done.). I know Dawn personally shelled out a few thousand dollars in filing the 501(c)(3) paper work & the lawyer fees that took to complete it. As a 501(c)(3) they are eligible for tax free status and grants.
My participation within Wrestlers Rescue consisted of signing for free at Dawn’s convention, raffling a gift basket at the Paul E Normous memorial show, agreeing to be on the cancelled cruise, & helping Dawn gather the 501(c)(3) paper work [which was completed by a lawyer]. Various people accused me and others of having our hands in the cookie jar, despite NEVER handling or having any access to any money. I guess asking me about my participation would be too much of an oversight. To my knowledge, the participation of most wrestlers was either volunteering their services & donating memorabilia in order to be used for fund raising purposes. To call any wrestler a thief would be grossly inaccurate, since we never handled the financial aspects of the charity.
Like I stated earlier, Dawn will release a statement showing her innocence & the lack of research done in the many malicious articles. My personal feelings are a friend defends each other until there is proof that shows that they are guilty. I’m defending Dawn until I see proof that she misappropriated funds. I believe in Dawn based on the character of her as a person, rather then just blindly throw accusations without her side of the story.”
Credit: PWInsider.com
Pulse Glazer is a Senior Staff Writer at www.PulseWrestling.com and Editor at www.ComicsNexus.com. You can follow him on twitter/pulseglazer for updates on all of his News and Columns, or e-mail hbk826@gmail.com with any questions or comments.
