Site raises over $500,000 for bus aide

GREECE, N.Y. (WIVB) - After bus aide Karen Klein’s story became public, a Toronto man set up an online donation site, hoping to collect $5,000 to send Karen on a vacation. Now that site, looks more like a lottery jackpot.

Karen Klein the grandmother of eight , can't believe it. When News 4 visited her Rochester home Thursday she was shocked when we told her that $250,000 had been raised at the time and it was all for her.

“A quarter million dollars?” Klein said, “I'm like living outside my body its not like this is me this is happening too. Imagine what she'd say now, Friday afternoon the collection was over $500,000.

More than 20,000 people left comments on the site. One woman writes that she was a victim of similar bullying in middle school, another says she cried watching the video with her children.

Max Sidorov, who started the fund, said, “The first idea I had was a vacation, I had no idea I was going to raise near this amount, I thought maybe a few thousand.”

He is one of the millions of people who saw the disturbing bus video. He knows Karen lived through a nightmare and now he hopes the money will help make her dreams come true.

Sidorov said, “Maybe send her somewhere nice but this is enough to let her retire.”

Karen says she'd love to retire, but even if she did go put her feet in the sand somewhere, she joked it wouldn't be for long.

Karen said, “Course then I should find another job to keep me out of trouble.”