NEWS PHOTO CHRIS BROWN
The Crestwood book swap has been damaged twice this summer, disheartening local residents.
cbrown@medicinehatnews.com@MHNBrown
For the second time in about a month the popular Crestwood book swap has been the target of vandals. A sign placed next to the damaged hut by an unidentified local deems the perpetrator “goof of the year.”
Neighbourhood resident Randy Drescher said the door was ripped off earlier this summer and a neighbour fixed it and put a “super duper” hinge on there.
On Friday morning Drescher noticed new damage to the book swap hut located next to Crestwood Pool.
One of the two posts it stands on was ripped out of the ground, he said, the door was torn off and was nowhere to be found, and the roof was just hanging on by a couple of nails. It was barely standing, with a couple of books still in it, he said with disappointment in his voice.
Drescher said he’s amazed at how much use the book swap gets.
“One week it’s packed to the brim with books, the next week it’s pretty much empty,” he said, noting there’s a wide variety of topics, subjects and genres among the books, which range from best-sellers to more under-the-radar fare.
“A lot of romance novels, a lot of cowboy novels, a lot of children’s books, too – books for teenagers to little tiny tots,” said Drescher.
There are a lot of regular users and donors.
“People that walk to work make a little detour to peek in to see if anything catches their interest. Every time I take my dog to the park I stop there,” Drescher said.
A week later some of the damage has been repaired and books are again being placed in the hut.
Drescher is concerned by what the vandalism could teach children.
“Kids learn by our example. What kind of example does that set?” he said.
