SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori’s T-shirt fundraiser for South Carolina family mourning dad, daughter

Jan 13, 2020, 12:03 PM | Updated: Jan 14, 2020, 4:42 pm

South Carolina...

MAGAbilly T-shirts are $20; all proceeds go to the family of the South Carolina father and daughter killed in the hunting accident. (Arch City Apparel)

(Arch City Apparel)

To order a MAGAbilly T-shirt, click this link or text “LOVE” to 98973.

A few days ago, there was an unimaginable tragedy in South Carolina. A father and his 9-year-old daughter, Kim and Lauren Drawdy, were out hunting when two other hunters mistook them for deer and shot them. They were both killed.

I would think that everyone would feel nothing but sadness hearing about this.

But a woman who is a business partner at Saint John’s Bar and Eatery in Capitol Hill did not react with sadness. Despite the fact that she called herself a “humanitarian” on her now-deleted Twitter account, she wrote, “1.5 less MAGAbilly’s in the world. At least they died supporting their beloved 2nd Amendment.”

My colleague Jason Rantz at KTTH broke the story, but no other Seattle media — other than this radio show and KING 5 — has picked up on this story. Nationally, it has gone viral. I suppose because this woman despises the president, the Seattle-area media has left her alone.

Dori: Cancel culture forces volunteer coach to resign over a few words, but leaves restaurant owner celebrating child’s death alone

This woman celebrated the fact that a father and young daughter died in a hunting accident. She did not know anything about their politics and had no evidence that they were Trump supporters. She did not know that they were hillbillies. She just assumed these things because they were out hunting. And so she decided to insert her anger at Trump into this horrible tragedy that had nothing to do with him.

I went to the Facebook page of the South Carolina mom, Kay-K. Bowers. The memorial service is this week. The mom and dad were no longer married — it looks like they were together for 10 years — but it appears that they had an amicable relationship for the sake of their two daughters. She wrote:

Well this man sure has been a big part of my life!! We were together for over 10 years and even tho things didn’t work out with us we learned to be kind and get along.. he sure did love our kids and that’s all I could have ask from him!! And I’m sure glad that he’s right there with my baby!! I love y’all! I’ll see ya when it’s my time! Until then fly high my beautiful angels!!

She also posted the Facebook memory that showed up as one year ago. It was photos of her little girl playing in the snow and making snow angels.

Think about the grief this family is going through. To think that a Seattle woman could have celebrated their deaths — and more importantly, not apologized afterward — tears me to shreds.

For whatever reason, this story has bothered me more than any story I’ve covered in a long time. And so I came up with an idea. I would like to do something for this family in South Carolina, to show the mom and big sister who were left behind that we are not all filled with that kind of hatred here in the Northwest.

We have found a company called Arch City Apparel that was able to make T-shirts with the phrase that was intended to be so hateful in the tweet — “MAGAbilly.” The T-shirts can be ordered at this link for $20, all of which will go to the family in need. Arch City is covering the cost of making the T-shirts so that we can send every penny of what we can raise to this grieving family. We want to take this word, originally intended to be a one of hate and judgment, and turn it into something positive for this family. Perhaps we could raise $10,000 or $20,000 for this mother and daughter in grief.

The shirts come in four colors, but I want to highlight one of them in particular — we chose purple because it is a mix of red and blue. That is to symbolize the fact that this effort should bring people from across the political spectrum together to do something kind for somebody else. It’s not about partisanship; it’s about love.

I have to do something. My heart hurts that so much for this city I grew up in and still do love. I do not want the national face of Seattle to be one of hatred.

“Thank you to everybody who has helped … I definitely believe that there are many good people [in the Puget Sound],” Kay-K. Bowers, the mother of 9-year-old Lauren, told us on the show.

One last note — do not do anything to Saint John’s. Don’t boycott them, don’t post bad reviews, and don’t dox them. That woman’s punishment is having to live with what she did. Let’s channel our feelings into showing that we are not full of hate, but rather positivity.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from 12-3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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Dori’s T-shirt fundraiser for South Carolina family mourning dad, daughter