Fans and friends opened their wallets to support the family of late HardLore co-host/Harm’s Way guitarist Bo Lueders today, April 03rd. The latter passed away unexpectedly yesterday, with his death sending ripples of shock and grief throughout the hardcore and metalcore scenes. While many of his peers have come forth to mourn him on social media, earlier today, his HardLore co-host Colin Young stepped up with this crowdfunding campaign. The aim behind it was to raise funds for the final expenses and cover the cost of an upcoming memorial service to honor his late friend.
Within hours, that campaign had well exceeded its initial goal of $60k, ultimately raising a staggering $164k before Young opted to end the campaign. Young has since announced that the funds not used to cover the intended costs will go towards a good cause. The current plan is to make donations — presumably in honor of Lueders — to mental health services in the late musician’s native Chicago area.
In a statement shared tonight, Young said of those plans:
“Thank you all so much for taking the time to read and to donate, it means the world to me and Bo‘s family/friends. I went for a walk immediately after creating this page, and by the time I looked at my phone again, you had all exceeded the goal tenfold.
With the donation goal automatically updating throughout that duration, I quickly rounded down the current amount to end the goal… and then you all just kept donating. We cannot thank you enough for this beautiful outpouring of love and support for our sweet Bo throughout these darkest of days.
We’ve decided to stop any future donations, and guarantee that a LARGE portion of what has been donated will be redistributed to various mental health services in the Chicagoland area. Thank you all.
–Colin“
