Turning A Negative Into A Positive, Entertainment Group Donates $1,000 To Schools’ Anti-Bullying Program

ST. CROIX — Reeling from the negative backlash of what was an attempt to give back to the community, TGOD Entertainment donated $1000 on Monday, to help foster anti-bulling programs in high schools. The donation was split equally between the St. Croix Central High School and the St. Croix Educational Complex High School to help curb the bullying problem within the schools.

Originally, the group had attempted to give the money away through a giveaway contest during a combined event held on St. Croix and St. Thomas earlier this month. However, after an influx of negative comments, the group decided that an alternate means of giving away the cash was necessary. The contest—which was hosted via the group’s Facebook page—intended to give the $1000 to the best dressed female from both events.

“When we posted pictures of the event on Facebook, the pictures did more damage than good,” said Darnell Williams—one of TGOD’s founding members, pictured center-back and right in the images above —in an interview with the Consortium. Mr. Williams says that a few of the group’s members began receiving messages in their inboxes. “Some of the people wanted the pictures down and they felt uncomfortable in their skin so the cyber bullying really started. It went from the people doing the teasing to, ‘when you see me on the streets’,” Mr. Williams said.

In light of the situation becoming violent, the group decided to act by taking down the pictures and posting a message to their page explaining the reason for discontinuing the contest. Mr. Williams admits that a few members of the group were also a part of the teasing, but they quickly realized the severity of the situation, and moved swiftly to show that they did not condone the behavior.

Mr. Williams stated that the group began getting a lot more positive feedback as to what they could do with the money. He added that because they never intended to keep the money, TGOD sat down as a group and decided that they would donate it towards an anti-cyber bulling program, since the incident was a case of cyber-bulling.

“The schools doesn’t have a program specifically for cyber-bulling, they have anti-bulling programs which they have cyber-bulling within the anti-bulling programs, so we took the money and we donated $500 to Complex and $500 to Central, so that they can put [it] towards their programs,” said Mr. Williams.

He further added that the money giveaway was always planned as a means of giving back to their community. Mr. Williams said the support and assistance they received during their first event during Christmas season—the Tsunami Fete—prompted them to want to give back in some way.

“What we did today was the first step in giving back because it’s not always about us receiving, we have to give back too, so that’s the plan for TGOD right now,” Mr. Williams says.

Other members of the group include Iaryn “Swanks” Williams, founder of the Stylee Band, and Kahreem Kahyan Sylvester, known as Kylo, as well as others.