Contributions to “The All Ready Fund” to honor slain Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams have reached approximately $15,000.
Through Friday morning, several hundred contributors had responded to a column that appeared in The Denver Post last Sunday. The fund was initiated to raise money for two marble headstones and a bench, costing about $7,000, at Williams’ Fort Worth, Texas, grave site, which has a temporary headstone 7 1/2 months after he was buried.
Any additional money was to be donated in the name of Broncos fans to the Boys and Girls Club’s Darrent Williams Teen Center that is expected to be constructed in Montbello next year.
Rosalind Williams, Darrent’s mother, told The Post on Thursday, after the column caused mixed reactions, that she wanted to thank Broncos fans for the support, but indicated she will put a headstone at Williams’ grave in the Laurel Land Memorial Park.
A check for $7,000 will be sent to the cemetery this week. If Rosalind Williams chooses not to accept the gift, the entire sum will be returned to Key Bank (where an account to administrate the fund was set up), and the final total will be presented to the Boys and Girls Club for the teen center. An executive from the organization said the donation from Broncos fans for the center would be “very welcome.”
Williams was murdered early Jan. 1.
He shouted “All Ready” before every Broncos game last season.
Although the official fund-raising effort for the gravestone has ended, checks to help fund the center may be sent to “The All Ready Fund,” in care of The Denver Post, 101 W. Colfax Ave., Suite 600, Denver, CO, 80202. Contributions also can be made at all Key Bank locations in Colorado.
