Bruce's Legacy of Black River Falls Asking for Donations

Monday, March 6th, 2023 -- 10:00 AM

Bruce’s Legacy of Black River Falls is a small nonprofit that searches for and recovers the bodies of drowned victims to provide resolution for their families.

Since 2013, they have located and recovered 45 bodies. The objective of their fundraiser is to purchase a slide-in truck camper for $40,000. They have traveled over 43,000 miles in 2022, to meet with families to conduct their searches and usually with our boat trailer in tow.

A member used his money in 2021 to purchase a motorhome, but they learned after several experiences it has limitations and creates complications. On several occasions, the boat ramps were impossible for them to safely navigate with the motorhome.

They were forced to unhook from the boat trailer and ask someone else to hook up the trailer with their vehicle to launch their boat in the water. The challenges stem from becoming dependent upon someone unfamiliar to them and being at the mercy of their availability to get their boat safely out of the water.

Oftentimes, they’re at a search location over several days. This means launching the boat in and out multiple times and when they are on the water for 8+ hours, schedules get increasingly difficult to sync. Sometimes the boat launching locations are far away from the nearest town, thus increasing the inconvenience for a person to assist them multiple times per day.

Add mother nature to the complications because she frequently forces them off the water or only gives them small breaks in the weather to get back on the water to search. Getting their boat in and out of water is necessary, yet too often impedes their ability to be autonomous, efficient, and effective with the brief time they have to conduct their searches for the families.

Bruce’s Legacy has identified the most cost-effective and practical solution is a combination of a pickup truck with a slide-in truck camper. This will enable them to navigate the boat ramps they encounter and mitigate dependency on other people at unfamiliar locations.

They hope you never need their services. However, your donation for the camper will indirectly be supporting the many families and communities that request our help. If you’d like to donate, the campaign can be found on GoFundMe.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.