The Young Men's Christian Association is an organization dedicated to help young and disadvantaged youths, especially in the Port Loyola area of Belize City. Well tonight some of the very youths the YMCA are trying to help are believed to be responsible for destroying facilities at the "Y" on Faber's Road. The YMCA's Diane Finnegan says that on Monday they returned to work only the find the basketball pole and rim on the ground. She believes it was vandalism.
Diane Finnegan,
"The entire pole for the basketball was completely ripped out of the cement and I am sure, I am positive, that it is not the younger kids who come by and use the facility every single day. One of the other young guys that was here mentioned that it was two big guys who did it. I am disappointed, I am so sad to say that I can't believe somebody would actually do this to a service that we offer to the entire community. We have a lot that we have to offer the people of this community and I am just asking that whosoever did it, it doesn't really matter who it is, but if they would like to come over and just assist us in getting it back in place. What it does to me, personally, is just sort of put a damper on your efforts but still not totally that I would want to give up."
The basketball rim was donated by businessman Omar Habet and he has committed to repairing it. Finnegan also says that earlier this year vandals tried to break into their computer lab.
7NEWS produced for broadcast by News Director Jules Vasquez
Edited for the internet by Keith Swift
