Friday, June 2nd 2017, 11:11 am
Vandals cause thousands of dollars in damage to a Broken Arrow non-profit that teaches adults with disabilities the art of gardening.
A lot has been cleaned up but you can look around and still see a lot more needs to be done.
People at A New Leaf are still in shock that someone would do something so cruel.
Vandals literally turned over A New Leaf, turning over tables and ripping through hundreds of flowers out of planters.
"I know they feel bad that someone would hurt us like this," said A New Leaf CEO Mary Ogle.
Everywhere you look you see weeks of hard work toiling the soil, hard work transformed into turned shapeless balls of dirt and tattered petals.
"That's a lot of product... that's a jade plant... that's a succulent," Ogle said. "It's devastating."
But people like John Godpaster are still working.
"Clean up a bit and sweep a bit," Godpaster said.
He's been planting at A New Leaf for 5 years.
A New Leaf is a non-profit that employs adults with disabilities and provides residential services.
The money they make from plant sales keeps that going.
To put the loss into perspective, each plant costs about $5 and there are 10 in each crate. There are about 10 crates per table so that's about $500 per table.
"This is $25,000 dollars of product and $40,000 in retail. It's the last four weeks of our season," Ogle said.
What's been destroyed is the last of the season.
The now-destroyed plants were moved there Thursday to go on sale.
At this point in the season, they can't be re-grown, replaced or salvaged.
"Whoever did this hurt a group of people who get hurt every day and have to work extra hard every day," Ogle said.
Police do not have any suspects right now.
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