Ponoka gym vandals broke lights, spray-painted swastikas on walls

A new gymnasium the people in Ponoka spent seven years raising money for won’t open on time, after vandals broke in over the weekend and wrecked fixtures and spray-painted racist graffiti on the walls.

The Ponoka gymnastics and trampoline club was supposed to open its new building next month.

But now the gym has holes in the walls and a floor littered with broken fluorescent light tubes.

Though vandals spray-painted swastikas and the words “white power” on the walls, RCMP in the town say they have enough evidence to show they’re not dealing with a hate crime.

“The first thing that came into my head is, who would do something like this?” said Deanna Groves, who works with the gymnastics and trampoline club.

“It's hard to come into the building right now without almost breaking into tears. There's drywall that's been broken out, there's spray paintings around the building, cans of paint were thrown around, doors and things were thrown into the trampoline pit and destroyed.

“This club is for the kids in our community. This kind of destruction is just ridiculous. It's senseless.”

The project has been in the works for years and was all done with volunteer hours, Groves said. The trampolines were set up. The gym equipment was already in place.

The new gym was set to open at the end of April. But that will now be delayed for months, she said. The club is currently waiting to hear about an insurance claim before the cleanup begins.

“It's going to take days to clean it up, then we're going to have to remove the broken drywall and have that re-done,” Groves said.

Ponoka RCMP are investigating.

Groves hopes the vandals are eventually caught.

“Take responsibility for it,” she said. “That's really the best we can hope for.”