Community rallies after vandals strike

WASILLA —Smith baseball fields in Wasilla were the target of a May attack by vandals.

Vulgar graffiti was painted on eight buildings around the complex, but nothing was broken and the fields were not damaged. No games or practices were affected for the 400 Wasilla Youth Baseball players who use the fields, league officials said. Overall, $3,700 worth of damage was done to the complex’s buildings, but the graffiti was quickly covered up by an overwhelming response from community members who heard about the vandalism.

“One great thing was that as people drove by they realized what had happened and I got inundated with phone calls from the community with people who wanted to help out,“ said Scott Ruta, Wasilla Youth Baseball president.

Wasilla Youth Baseball has continued normal activity with its clean-up day and beginning its Pony League season.

“I was like, ‘What in the world?’ It would make more sense to me if someone had gotten mad during the course of the season, but that wasn’t it,” Ruta said. “They had to spend a lot of time on this. They didn’t break anything, they didn’t damage the fields, they just painted up our buildings.”

Ruta was pleased with the response of the community surrounding the baseball fields on Knik-Goose Bay Road.

“We didn’t want the kids showing up for clean-up day with the vulgarity of the graffiti,” he said. “We got a great deal on paint and we had people coming by willing to help out and get it taken care of.”