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Vandals strike League of Dreams' Abilities field

Posted at 6:25 AM, Apr 24, 2017
and last updated 2017-04-24 22:00:42-04

It's a little less than five minutes, but it doesn't take away from the impact of what exactly happened at the League of Dreams' Abilities Field over the weekend.

League of Dreams director Jessica Mathews talked about the vandalism and graffiti in the dugout at the field during a Facebook video posted Sunday.  

"For vandals to come to our field and tear it up is just awful," Mathews said. "It hurts my heart that people have to be so cruel and mean."

Mathews and others are seen in the video working to clean up the dugout. She said most of the tagging was removed, but North of the River Recreation and Parks District workers will be out later this week to paint over the remaining tagging. 

Parent and League of Dreams board member, Susan Lara was one of the first people who showed up to the field and saw the tagging. 

"It was hateful things that were being said, but the part that talked about disabled kids, that really hurt," she said. 

She reached out to Mathews and asked her to bring a banner to hang up over the writing as she strategically placed her personal belongings over the writing on the bench. 

Thankfully one of the parents was able to bring some cleaner and scrub off most of the tagging on the bench and the games carried on as planned. 

"They are not going to break my spirit and they are not going to break this league, so yeah it hurt for a minute and we covered it and we're going to move on and I just pray that they don't do this again," said Susan Lara.