DENVER — A local high school student is using his platform to help the family of the former fire chief who was shot and killed at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania and other victims who were injured.
Colton Patterson, a senior at Columbine High School said he has used his large social media following of over half a million followers on Instagram to raise $10,000 through the sale of his original artwork for the shooting victims, after the this past weekend's assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump.
Patterson,17, said he has a sizable following for the artwork and content he creates for country and western music on an Instagram page called “Broken Bow Country”. He told Denver7 he has only had the page for less than a year, but has grown it to 690,000 followers.
"I really felt like I was obligated to do something with the privilege that I had, and like the unique opportunity to give back in some way," he said, "I hear about the tragedy a lot at Columbine, so it definitely resonated when this happened."
But he said his fundraising post was immediately met with a barrage of controversy with many commenters stating that the attempted shooter “shouldn't have missed” or that the death of the victim was “completely deserved.”
Patterson said he lost around five thousand followers upon posting his fundraiser, but he describes it as “inconsequential when you think about the people that it's helping to support.”
"It does make me, like, just kind of like, awestruck that people cannot shed any of their beliefs or convictions to do something that just helps people in need and people are grieving and that probably aren't even thinking about the political implications right now," he said.
Despite all of the negativity surrounding his efforts, Patterson said this has been one his "proudest moments" and a big accomplishment.
"The loss of followers or the negative stuff is completely just inconsequential. When I know that I can do something that actually just gives back way more money than I would be able to on my own," he said.
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