Funds for wounded Marine slow to come
Efforts continue to raise funds for Marine Lance Cpl. Juan Dominguez, 26, injured in combat in Sangin, Afghanistan, in October 2010.
He lost both legs above the knee and his right arm at the elbow.
“We’re at about $5,000,” Shane Shores, the project organizer, says of donations to benefit Dominguez. “Our goal is $50,000, to buy a handicapped-equipped vehicle so that he can get around.
“We’re trying to collect stuff to have a yard sale: anything at all that’s in good shape.”
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Shores helped organize fundraising projects just under three years ago when another Marine from Deming, Travis Dodson, sustained injuries in combat in Iraq.
Donations paid for a vehicle adapted for Dodson’s use.
Dominguez’ medical costs - as were Dodson’s - are covered by the USMC. A Deming High graduate, Dominguez has been receiving treatment at the National Naval Medical Center, in Bethesda, Md., where his visitors included Dodson, who was in the area with other Marines. Dominguez’ parents were flown to Bethesda at military expense.
Shores served in the Marines from 1982 to 1985 and, when coming to Deming, organized Toys for Tots campaigns at Christmas for several years.
He is disturbed by reports he hears that donations for Dominguez are not coming as quickly as those for Dodson did, with people saying it’s because Dominguez is Hispanic and Dodson an Anglo.
“Race has nothing to do with it,” Shores says, describing himself as “a redneck from Kansas,” adding, when they said “Cracker, they had me in mind.”
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