So, let me get this straight.
You’re hanging out in Kent. You’ve got a big truck and you’re bored.
What to do, what to do…
How about going four-wheeling in a soccer field?
That’s what happened this weekend, when some jerk (or multiple jerks) took it upon themselves to do doughnuts in the Kent Youth Soccer Association’s Pea Patch Playfields. The damage done in what probably was a half hour of someone else’s good time will take months, and many dollars, to fix.
I’m sure the person responsible for this Dukes of Hazzard reenactment had no clue – or could care less – that 1,500 kids in this area use those fields on a weekly basis. Or that parents and coaches get out there and stripe those fields on their own, and take care of them. Or that for some of these kids, those fields are the one place where they feel they belong to something – where teams can sometimes take on the semblance of families.
No, I’m sure the person who got his or her jollies driving in circles had a fleetingly good time, then went home to nurse a hangover.
Maybe they’re at work today, wondering how they’ll get grass and dirt off their prized rig.
Hopefully they’ll have friends who will care enough about who they’ve impacted – a league of kids, basically – to call the Sheriff’s Department and report them. Or who have enough use for the $500 that KYSA has put up as a reward to fork over their name.
If in fact they are caught, I hope part of their penalty will be helping to re-sod those fields. Considering the work that parents and other volunteers put into making the KYSA league work, that is the least they can do.
That or having to drive a tractor over those same fields all of next season, cutting the grass they so thoughtlessly churned up the season before. It could be fun – maybe they could do it on a Friday night, with their buddies cheering them on.
To learn more about KYSA, or to help this organization, get online to www.kysa.org.
To give information about the incident, call the sheriff’s office at 206-296-4155 or the Kent Youth Soccer Association at 253-852-1054.
As the parent of a kid who plays on those fields, I can only hope our league can find a place for these youngsters to finish out their season.
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