Acadia Park in Lower Sackville has hockey rink boards stolen
The community group behind Acadia Park in Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia is going after vandals who have targeted it for the past three years.
The park has been vandalized several times and this week the target was the community rink. A pile of lumber to be used to construct the rink was stolen from behind a shed.
The lumber was valued at about $600 and had already been drilled and numbered so it could be pieced together to make the rink.
Group director Linda Hefler says a lot of hard work had already been done.
“We just realized last night that all of our sideboards for our outside rink have been stolen,” she said.
Security footage captures theft
Although the group just made the discovery this week, security footage outside Acadia Hall shows a van driving away with the lumber on the night of September 29.
A licence plate isn't visible in the footage.
Hefler says they're used to kids vandalizing the fountain and nearby gardens, but she draws the line at the community rink.
"This was an adult. Driving a van and coming in,” she said. “So I just decided to put it out on Facebook, rant a little on it and I am shocked at how the community has rallied behind us."
The story circulated on social media and staff at Payzants Home Hardware, just down the street, read what happened.
The store’s Matthew Payzant decided to help.
"When we heard that it was lumber that was required, we knew that we could help out so we just decided to contact Linda and let them know whatever's needed, we could provide for sure,” he said.
Now that the community group knows it will have lumber, work will begin once again to drill holes and prepare the outdoor rink.
"We're very resilient,” Hefler said. “We have had so much property damage in starting to do this, it's unbelievable and we have even stopped complaining about it. We just come down and fix it up."
Other donations and volunteers will make sure the community rink opens this winter. Hefler says the next step is tracking down whoever stole the lumber in the first place.
