Vandals stole all eight lights on Rotary Way Trail, three days after they were installed in memory of Lee Thunder.
Vandals stole all eight lights on Rotary Way Trail, three days after they were installed in memory of Lee Thunder.
On May 26, volunteers from Landing Trail Intermediate School (LTIS) and the Lions Club installed eight solar-powered lights along the trail, but only the posts remained by Sunday.
Lions Club member Dave Maguire said he first heard about the vandalism from the father of a LTIS student that volunteered to install the lights. The man messaged Maguire on May 29, asking if someone had a reason for taking the lights down.
“I don't live in Athabasca, so I asked people if they would go and check and see if, in fact, it was correct, ” Maguire recalled. “They sent me pictures back of the empty posts. They told me that some of them had been ripped off, some had been removed, someone had a screwdriver - they're gone, all eight of them. ”
Just a few days prior at the installation, Maguire said these lights were a test to see if they would stay up without suffering damage or disappearing.
“And here a concern I thought was that somebody would take one, maybe someone would take two, ” he said. “But Jesus, all of them? All of them? ”
The loss deeply affected Maguire, who assisted the project the over the last year, on behalf of the Lions Club. Tears came to eyes as he spoke of how the children behind the project must feel.
“Here you have something where the kids worked hard to bring a safety issue to light, and people in the community picking up on an idea that there is a safety issue and how can we best do it with community support, ” he said. “All that falls into place. All that's dashed now. ”
Jeff Semenchuk, the Grade 6 LTIS teacher that worked on the Lights for Lee project with his class last year, said he hasn't had a chance to speak with those students who are now in Grade 7, but this year's class was quite upset.
“Even though they weren't a part of the project when it was done last year, they knew what it was for, ” he said. “I think they questioned the morals of some people that would do something like that, because of the cause. ”
The Grade 6 students started the Lights for Lee project in 2015, in memory of 12-year-old Lee Thunder who was struck and killed by a vehicle as he was walking up Highway 55, instead of the poorly lit trail, in the evening.
“They're scared to walk down there, ” Semenchuk said. “Now you're making it where it's scary again. Maybe these people didn't know a student was killed or wasn't aware of what the project was for. ”
Maguire, called the act “disgusting ” and hoped the thieves would be turned in by someone they know.
“Would like I like plant a boot firmly up their keister? Yeah I would, ” he said. “I don't think there's anyone in town who wouldn't want to do that, but that's probably not the right attitude to take. ”
He noted that the difficult part was not to let the negativity overcome positive actions, and to continue helping the community.
“I have to fight that feeling about giving up on stuff and saying, ‘It is still better to do good in this world and to continue to attempt to do good in this world,' ” he said. “Those who chose to disrupt the safety feature and stole the lights, that's not good. That's the opposite of good, and I refuse to get into that. ”
If someone knows the whereabouts of the lights or would like to return them, they can be brought back to any Athabasca Lions Club members, LTIS or Canadian Tire.
