Shout out to the Bravo community for having boots on the ground in Benton, Illinois (home of Crappie Lake) and putting rumors that are so nasty and so rude to rest.
After former Real Housewives of New York stars Luann de Lesseps and Sonja Morgan accepted the task of giving a facelift to the town of Benton, the network [and the ladies] were accused of exploiting the town.
ICYMI:
An online troll who is believed to reside in Benton took to the comment section of Lu’s Instagram page on 8/25 to bash Bravo for allegedly making “a joke” of the town, wasting money on the park they built, ruining Halloween for the kids of Benton, and supporting a pedophile. (Which is absolutely ridiculous- justice of Akash Patel, the owner of the Benton Motel.)
“Now you address the fact that Bravo and you essentially exploited the entire town of Benton?!”
“You realize Bravo didn’t pay for the ‘Christmas In July’ bullshit right? It was paid for by the town’s funds meant for the Halloween celebration. The kids didn’t get a Halloween because of you and the corruption that is in the city’s office holding good boys club.”
“This was their first Halloween since covid. As you could see there isn’t much here and what you did intentionally or not made my hometown a joke- took away joy from the kids- and at what expense?”
“There was a playground built that no one uses because it is covered in needles since it was built in the part of town no one uses for safety reasons – waste of money.”
“The owners of the motel took the hot tub home lol- and that motel is called the Pedo-motel by locals for a reason.”
“With Halloween coming around again why don’t you do the right thing and speak up and have Bravo fix at least that for the kids of Benton and make this year the best one they have- or rather donate to their school system which is desperately under-supported instead of lining the pockets of the mayor and his administration….”
Boots on the ground:
The following day, 8/26, a pair of Bravoholics did the lord’s work and took a trip to the Benton Motel.
Complete with video footage of the hot tub and fire pit area Sonja and Lu helped build, the troll’s accusations were debunked.
“The hot tub was there and there were no needles in the park, just 2 girls playing.”
“What a weird thing to lie about.”
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That’s my opinion:
Did you watch Welcome to Crappie Lake? If so, did you feel like Benton was made to look like a joke?
As a fan of the show, I found the town charming, unlike this resident.
Let’s call a spade a spade while we’re here …
The person who claimed Benton is covered with needles accused one of the few people of color in Benton of sexual crimes against children. 🙄
Sounds like this person is the problem.
