Vandalism of our BSA troop property

It seems that over the weekend, some kids from our town took it upon themselves to vandalize our Boy Scout Troop Trailer. When it isn't being hauled behind a truck, going to awesome places, it sits behind the chartered organization that sponsors our troop. We have a storage shed, and the trailer, and both items have been graffitied and damaged.

The church noticed the damage, and contacted us and the police immediately. The police claim they have a really good idea who did the deed, and are pursuing that lead.


I have a problem with is the fact that there are kids the same age as our Scouts who have taken it upon themselves to senselessly damage someone else's stuff, and to do so in what I understand is a vile manner. There are obscenities and other comments written on the trailer.  There's no need for that, really. Come on.

These kids are on a different path, it seems, than our boys.

Now, our boys aren't perfect. We've had behavior issues, we've had problems. We work together with the families and the committee, and sometimes the district council, to rectify these problems. Not just to keep boys on the path to Eagle, but to hopefully instill in them a good and right moral core, a balance of conscience, so that crap they've done won't get done again. My guess is that the kids who did this do not have more than a parent or maybe two parents working in their lives to raise them. Maybe that parent, or parents, are doing the best they can, but they do not have a "village" behind them to help raise the kids.

In a lot of ways, these kids have a greater need for Scouting or a program that will help them grow and evolve, more than some of our boys. I would love to find them, and invite them. Invite them on a trip, show them what the trailer is for.

My guess is, they're not going to like that or want to do it, or give a shit. It's sad really. I don't like to think about how they may end up, with the next organizational entity they get to work in will be an institutional one, if they don't find their feet and win the future for themselves.

I'm headed down later today with recommendations from my girl C on how to clean that up and fix it... she had some good suggestions and talked to her auto detailer, and I am hoping to clean it up a bit so they don't have to cover the sides with duct tape before driving up this weekend.

Pictures to follow later.