Published: September 05, 2008 04:27 pm         

Vandalism

Volunteers could use your help

Hats off to the Wabash and Erie Canal Association on its determination to rebuild the 72-foot replica of a canal boat destroyed by an arsonist this week.

The fire broke out early Sunday in Delphi’s Canal Park, destroying about half of the boat that volunteers had been working on since February.

The association’s Dan McCain said volunteers would not be deterred by the setback. In fact, they planned to be at the park this morning working to clear away the remnants of the fire.

“We don’t want that to be such a scar,” he said. “We want to get that out of there as quickly as possible.”

McCain said public response to the fire had been amazing.

“We’ve had so many offers of help,” he said. “Not just money, but labor and material.”

Some of those offers have come from children.

“They just don’t understand why someone would damage something they had so much fun playing on,” McCain said.

McCain was quick, though, to look for the silver lining.

“There’s so much we’d like to do with the park,” he said. “With so much enthusiasm for this project, we’re thinking we might be able to carry this over to some of our other projects.”

That would be a wonderful development.