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Vandals sour a sweet charity drive
Comments 0 | Recommend 0ATHENS, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - Vandals have struck a community in Calhoun County and dealt a major setback to a charity drive.
You could call it one of the sweeter charity drives in West Michigan, but someone has spoiled things for the Athens Youth Council.
"Every year we get a few of them," said J.R. Brunner, syrup collection chair for the Athens Youth Council, "vandalism is not a foreign concept."
For 60 years the Athens Youth Council has collected sap from maple trees in Athens for their annual charity syrup drive. Unfortunately, over the weekend, someone sliced open close to 400 bags that were collecting sap for the drive.
"It's discouraging," said Joel Klein of the Athens Youth Council, "you put in all the time, and you do it because you want to help, you want to help the young."
"We're all volunteers," said Brunner, "none of us are paid for anything we do, these people come out and work and work hard, and to have these people, the folks that did this have probably never lifted a finger to help us; it's irritating."
The bags collect the sap which is then boiled down to make maple syrup and sold for charity.
Trooper Jim Gochanour of the Michigan State Police admits that at first the vandalism sounded minor until he saw dozens of torn bags.
"The volume of their loss is basically to the point where they're out of bags to be able to hang back up," said Gochanour.
Volunteers collected the ripped bags, but the sap was lost.
In a good season, the syrup drive can earn $10,000, but two nights of slashing cost hundreds of dollars for scholarships, sports leagues and the Boy Scouts.
"This was an effort they made," said Brunner, "they were up and down every street that we have taps on."
Under the water tower in Athens, you can almost follow the path the vandals took, going from tree to tree, sliced open bag to sliced open bag.
State Police hope that they can help the investigation into the sweet charity work gone sour.
"It's discouraging, but we're going to keep on with it of course," said Klein.
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