Gold Rush's Freddy Dodge Fundraising Controversy, Explained

Always ready to help struggling mineworkers and contribute to community causes, the Gold Rush star was keen to organise a fundraiser for Poudre High School in Fort Collins, Colorado. However, a disagreement between the school district and the local auctioneer who proposed the idea led to Freddy Dodge's withdrawal.

Let's find out what happened.

The event aimed to raise funds for the Poudre High School Future Farmers of America during the annual Oyster Fry and Auction.

The incentive for the donation was two half-ounces of gold sand mined by Freddie Dodge from the local Cache la Poudre River, along with lunch with Dodge himself in Fort Collins. City auctioneer Bill Seaworth came up with the idea.

Unfortunately, the school district and Seaworth fell out over whether volunteer auctioneers would be willing to purchase the gold. Undisclosed organisations would buy the gold for the school wholesale to compensate Dodge, and all of the school's costs would be recouped during the auction.

“It is not PSD’s practice, nor do we believe it is reasonable, for the district to spend taxpayer dollars on auction items such as precious metals. The funds promised for the purchase of the gold would NOT have gone to the PHS FFA program directly”, Poudre School District responded.

The school district may also have been concerned about being audited for tax fraud by the Internal Revenue Service, fearing that the auction might not cover its costs, despite the auctioneer's claims that the starting bids were significantly higher than the gold's selling price, not to mention the lot for lunch with Freddy.

Although the auctioneers could not have lunch with Dodge, the FFA still raised the necessary funds at the February 17 auction.

Freddie Dodge was not directly involved in the controversy. However, it remains unknown who ultimately acquired the gold he mined.