Girl Scout project vandalized

By Ally Turk
Posted 8/14/19

Girl Scout Troop 60174 of Marlboro worked tirelessly to complete the gaga ball pit they were building for Cluett Schantz Memorial Park, which was vandalized sometime last week.

Alivia Menser and …

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Girl Scout project vandalized

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Girl Scout Troop 60174 of Marlboro worked tirelessly to complete the gaga ball pit they were building for Cluett Schantz Memorial Park, which was vandalized sometime last week.

Alivia Menser and Amanda Robertson are the Girl Scout Cadettes who built the ball pit as part of achieving the Girl Scout Silver Award. Girl Scout Cadettes are girls in sixth-eighth grade, and the Silver Award is the highest award the girls can earn before they move on to be Girl Scout Seniors in high school. The Silver Award is given to scouts who make a change in their community for the better.

Menser and Robertson decided what they cared about most in their community were the parks and the children playing in them, since they played in the park as well. They wanted other children to benefit from their work.

“This was just simply kids helping kids, and there’s no better lesson to be learned,” Jolene Gaer, troop leader, said.

The project was vandalized with the names Tom, Emanuel, Cat, Ava, and other illegible names, as well as crossing out the signs on the pit stating that the ball pit was made by the Girl Scout troop and why. The writing is very childlike and Gaer suspects that other children were the ones to vandalize it.

The vandalism was discovered by the troop Thursday morning when the girls and Gaer showed up to present the project to a local official. Gaer suspects it happened between Monday and Thursday morning.

Menser and Robertson started working on this project in March and had until September 30 to finish it to be eligible for the Silver Award.
“They started with the fundraising,” Gaer said. “They went to all local businesses, the community, and got the money.”

With the wood now written on and the signs ruined, the girls are looking into ways to fix the ball pit.

“The girls who did it are planning on fixing it. They’re thinking about power washing it, and adding some paint, and they’re going to try to replace the signs,” Gaer said.

On a local Facebook page, Marlboro Community Concerns, Gaer’s husband posted about the vandalism and received many comments.
“This is so sad. I know those girls worked hard and are heartbroken,” Stacey Broat-Crosby wrote.

Many commenters wanted to know who did this, and how no one recognized the names yet. Gaer says that she hopes the children who did this come forward and help fix their mistakes.

“The girls are really young, they’re 14, and really they’re hurt,” Gaer said. “If they find out [who did it] the girls truly would want an apology and they would just want those that damaged the pit to understand the work that went into making it.”