Missy Hyatt Defends Dawn Marie And Wrestler's Rescue
Missy Hyatt posted the following blog, discussing the recent issue with Dawn Marie and Wrestler's Rescue?
My Statement On The Allegations Against Dawn Marie
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 Relief, (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.