On Sunday September 13, volunteers from Trinity Lutheran Church in Mason City performed “God’s Work” in beautifying a shelter house in East Park. Shelter #4, by the sledding hill, had been a recent target for graffiti and vandalism. Trinity volunteers donated their Sunday afternoon to helping cover up the graffiti and give the shelter an overall face-lift. Church volunteer organizers worked with city staff to coordinate the effort, and they said city workers would be back to do some of the heavier paint scraping.
This project incorporated a variety of age groups and abilities that Trinity brought Sunday after 1 PM. There was young and old and many ages in between working hard at the site as a team to accomplish the task. Tan paint and green paint covered the old, worn areas and banished the nasty words left behind by a malcontent.
According to two teens who arrived on the site as the volunteers were painting, they claim to have witnessed a local teen vandalize the shelter.
“Now we see how bad it was, why it had to be covered up,” the teens explained. “We saw “D—- W—- in there spray painting (recently). He wrote some really nasty words (which NIT won’t publish here).” According to the two youngsters, the teen was turned in as police were called, but likely didn’t face any charges. A search of court records shows no charges against a teen by the name they gave.
Church volunteers expected to be done with the project within a couple of hours.
Trinity Lutheran Church of Mason City paints East Park shelter house
Posted by NorthIowaToday.com on Sunday, September 13, 2015
Thanks so much for sending your reporter out to East Park on Sunday. I didn’t catch his name, but he was very personable and professional. As you can tell from the pictures, we had a lot of young volunteers working that day, and I think that the added attention that your coverage provides, helps to emphasize to them the importance to the community of their volunteer efforts. I look forward to seeing you again in the future.
You are very welcome. And thank you again for the good work you and your team accomplished!
– Matt Marquardt (Publisher / Reporter)
I am once again saddened by the vandalism in our community. We have many wonderful volunteers like we see here covering up the language written by someone who does not value the many hours of work that is being done by all age vounteers……..I do think that the one or ones responsible should be the ones to paint and repair the damage to the shelter house……there is no punishment for these people.