maggie fyffe and others thought, why not buy the island for ourselves? uma, and two years of somebody that was living in stuttgart and had only visited for four days, it had convinced everybody that we wouldn't have to do very much to do better than what he'd done, which was nothing! ( laughs ) >> kroft: no one in scotland had ever tried a community buyout before, certainly not 64 residents on a depressed, undeveloped island with no cash or credit. but lots of people were familiar with their story, and fancied the idea of wee folk taking on the big gu in 1997, a public fundraising campaign brought in $2.5 million to close the deal. the funds came from 10,000 individual contributors, and one huge check from an unknown woman. >> fyffe: the bulk of the money came from a mystery benefactor. >> kroft: a mystery benefactor? sounds like dickens. >> fyffe: it's a pretty crazy story, really. >> kroft: you don't know who she is? >> fyffe: the only string attached was that she remained anonymous. >> kroft: she ever been to the island? >> fyffe: not as far as i know.