When Wally Johnsen drove into the army cadet camp she manages near Narrow Lake last Thursday morning, she planned to spruce the place up a little — make it ready for a squadron of cadets to stay for the weekend.
Instead, she found Camp Wright — around 25 kilometres southwest of Athabasca —needed extensive repairs and professional cleaning in the wake of vandalism that Athabasca RCMP say occurred between Oct. 15 and Oct. 31.
"My friend said, 'Wally, look: the mess hall door is open,’” Wally recalled. She said she noticed fresh tracks because the ground was wet — unusual because guests weren’t expected until later in the weekend.
"We walked in, and I just let it out. I just screamed."
Wally said someone had sprayed fire extinguishers all over the mess hall and, she discovered later, in a cabin interior.
Police report that damage was sustained to several buildings.
"Can you imagine? How are we going to get that chemical off the walls? It's cedar," she said.
Nearly all the windows in the mess hall had been smashed, and smoke detectors had been ripped out of the ceiling. Chairs were broken, and ketchup and mustard streaked the floor.
"It was shocking to walk into a youth camp, and it's that kind of mess — and destroyed,” she said.
When she entered the kitchen, she slipped and nearly bashed her head on the stove thanks to a slick cocktail of Italian salad dressing and jam coating the floor. Beer cans and bottles were littered about.
"I don't know why they would do that,” she said of the break-in. “There's really nothing there that's worth anything to them."
Wally noted a new coffee machine and some ice cream were taken.
"I don't mind if they wanted to eat the ice cream and then don't do the damage," she said.
She couldn’t estimate the total cost of the damage and what the camp would have to spend on professional cleaning services, though she did note that the camp loses $1,200–$1,500 per weekend that it must stay closed.
She added that each of the large fire extinguishers that were emptied cost $400, and there were three in the kitchen alone.
Wally’s husband, Fred, said Camp Wright is a non-profit camp that was developed in the 1960s by Athabasca’s air cadet squadron; in the ‘70s, the Air Cadet League of Canada Alberta Provincial Committee took over the camp lease and transformed it into a survival camp for army and sea cadet use. On average, 1,600 cadets come through the camp each year, and all the maintenance work is done on a volunteer basis.
He estimated it costs $37,000 per year to run the camp.
Wally said if the vandal or vandals are caught, jail time would not be her first choice of punishment.
"They should be working (the damage) off. Jail doesn't help with that. I work with youth, and I know how that works," she said. "You come stand in front of me and say, 'I'm sorry; I'm here to help.' You will work all winter shoveling snow.”
Fred pointed out they were lucky the weather was mild, as the vandals left doors wide open and pipes could have easily been frozen.
He said there are gates and warning signs leading into the camp.
"Now, I'm going to put everywhere new locks,” said Wally, adding that this is the fourth time the camp has had a break-in.
Police are asking the public to phone them at 780-675-4252 or Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) with any information in the case.
Wally said she suspects a younger person was involved, and she thinks they first entered through a small kitchen window; there was a little footprint in the kitchen sink.
"I come from 18 kids. And we never, ever did something like that,” she said. “It’s just sad.”
