Hip hop group gives out free school supplies

Keyoni Rustin, Danajah Torrence and Adrian Lott sign up for school supplies at the Untouched Entertainment supplies event in East Spencer. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, Salisbury Post

Stephanie Cato volunteers to help Untouched Entertainment with their school supplies give away in East Spencer. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, Salisbury Post

Domonek Wilder is with Untouched Entertainment that sponsored the school supplies give away in East Spencer. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, Salisbury Post

By Jessie Burchette

jburchette@salisburypost.com

Hundreds of children have bags full of school supplies courtesy of a local hip hop group.

Untouched Entertainment put a notice in the Post offering free school supplies Thursday at sites in East Spencer and Salisbury.

“People are having hard times,” said Kenney Coney, one of the five members of Untouched. “We wanted to help out.”

The turnout was nearly overwhelming.

More than 300 children turned out at the Kujimani After School Program at 207 S. Long St.

“We ran out of everything,” Coney said.

No problem. The band members, including Coney, Domonek Wilder, Steve Frost, Terrence Gooden and Lamont Tucker, made a quick trip to Wal-Mart and reloaded.

The extra trip to stock up slightly delayed the start of the give-away at the Salisbury Civic Center.

But hundreds of children and their mothers took seats and waited patiently for Coney and his group to fill the bags.

“It’s a chance to give back … to help the children,” Coney said.

The group didn’t seek any donations, opting to use their own money. “We’ve sold plenty of CDs. We want to give what we can.”

“We want the children to get an education,” Coney said, looking at the hundreds of children waiting for the supplies. “We’re giving away school supplies for two reasons. One, to show our kids here in Salisbury how important an education is. And two, that there are still some African-American men out here who are concerned about and active in the life and growth of our community.”

Michelle Gaston of Salisbury was one of the mothers waiting for supplies.

Gaston, who served in the U.S. Army and went to Kuwait with the 846th Transportation Unit, saw the notice about free supplies in the paper.

Gaston recently started a job at the Hefner VA Medical Center. She has an 11-year-old son and a daughter entering pre-school.

She hoped to get a lot of the generic school supplies at the give-away, adding that there will be other things she’ll have to buy.

Gaston expressed her appreciation, saying its a good way to give back to the community.