Online campaign winds down for bullied NY bus monitor Karen Klein as fund total tops $683,000

GREECE, N.Y. – The online campaign that aimed to raise $5,000 to send bullied a New York bus monitor on vacation is winding down — after tallying more than $683,000.

As the monthlong campaign neared its end Friday, a spokeswoman for the fundraising site Indiegogo says more than 30,000 people have contributed to 68-year-old Karen Klein, with donations coming in from 84 countries and all 50 states.

The fundraiser for the suburban Rochester grandmother was the idea of Max Sidorov, a 25-year-old Canadian who was moved by a video posted online showing Klein being tormented by middle school students on a school bus.

The school system in the town of Greece has suspended four seventh-grade students for a year.

The fundraiser ends Friday at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time.