Vandals Damage 'A New Leaf' Non-Profit In Broken Arrow

Friday, June 2nd 2017, 11:11 am

By: News On 6

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.