Over $150,000 Raised For Restaurant Owner In FYRE Documentary
Through everything that happened during the Fyre documentary on Netflix, the one thing that people have taken away from it the most is the shocking betrayal against the local Bahamians in the area who were worked to the bone day and night for weeks and months, who never received any payment for their hard labour.
One woman who comes to mind is Mrs Rolle, the restaurant owner who fed all the labourers their three meals a day for the weeks the construction went on, for which she never got paid for, nor did her staff. Mrs Rolle then had to dip into her own savings, using 50,000 to pay their wages. This is money she never got back from the Fyre organisation.
In the documentary, Maryanne Rolle gives her testimony on the greatest festival that never happened.
"Personally, I don't even like talking about Frye Festival. Just take it away and let me start a new beginning."
Just a few days after the Netflix Documentary was released, Twitter users were demanding that a GoFundMe page should be set up to repay her the money she lost.
Can we please start a GoFundMe for the Bahamian woman scammed by the Fyre Festival. She is the only person in this entire scam I really felt for. pic.twitter.com/VhgGQuDDmS
— Ashley Ortiz (@Amcdoodle715) January 19, 2019
Along with help from Chris Smith, the director of the Netflix Documentary, they were able to convince Mrs.Rolle to set up a GoFundMe fundraiser to raise the money she had spent from her own pocket over the course of the construction. Mrs.Rolle was apparently unsure at first, as she thought it would be another scam.
Within three days a GoFundMe was set up, and had reached and exceeded its target, raising over 150,000 dollars to be given back to Mrs.Rolle and her workers.
Chris Smith has since said he is in talks with other contractors and workers on the island to set them up a GoFundMe.
Ja Rule also posted an apology post directed at Mrs Rolle, thanking her for her hard work and apologising for the destruction that the festival had caused.
This is just another account of how Twitter can change peoples lives. Here's hoping the rest of the workers are just as lucky.