Maurice youth repair vandalized park

MAURICE — Vandalism that occurred Monday night at Maurice Park showed that people can be thoughtless with their actions.
More than 20 students from Cecil Picard Elementary at Maurice and North Vermilion Middle School showed Thursday afternoon that actions can definitely be thoughtful.
The group gathered to fill in ruts created after an unidentified driver did donuts on the play area at the park. Capt. Lance Broussard, a DARE officer with the Vermilion Parish Sheriff’s Office, and Amy
Hebert, a teacher at Cecil Picard, helped organize the effort. Broussard donated the dirt.
“I had some leftover dirt from a job,” Broussard said. “When I saw that this happened, I called the mayor to see if he would mind if we got a group of kids to come volunteer to spread that dirt.”
Maurice Mayor Wayne Theriot said he could not be more proud of the students.
“This is very heartwarming that the youth of our community are doing this,” Theriot said. “They are taking ownership of this.
“It is a tremendous feeling to see these kids doing this.”
Hebert agreed.
“We are so proud of our kids to take the time after school to come and do this work,” Hebert said. “That is the kind of kids we have.”
While not completely erasing it, Thursday’s effort eased some of the financial burden of repairing the damage. Theriot said last Tuesday morning that the estimate to repair the ground at the park would be $3,000.
“We are still going to have to do some things out here,” Theriot said, “but this helps.”
However, Thursday afternoon represents way more than monetary savings.
“It’s the fact,” Theriot said, “that Capt. Lance, Amy Hebert, these kids and their parents have come out here to take the time to do this.”
Police are still working to identify the suspect or suspects who drove onto the play area at the park Monday night and left the ruts. Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact Maurice Police at 893-2540.
He would have certainly rather the vandalism not happened, but Theriot said it is nice to see the good that resulted.
“It proves that sometimes bad events can produce good things,” Theriot said.
And proves what the future has to offer.
“This reaffirms my belief in our future,” Theriot said. “These kids are our future.
“Our future is extremely bright.”