Vincent Velarde, 19, of Molalla, admitted this week that he

down a church building and thereby broke Lynn Blatter's heart.

Blatter, 61, of Mulino, runs

, a social services nonprofit that did just about anything for anyone.

Victim statement

Lynn Blatter

. Such statements typically lay out the effects of a crime, which the judge takes into account during sentencing. The judge called the letter "thoughtful" and called Blatter "full of grace."

When a mother lost her baby and couldn't afford the cremation, she called Blatter. So did a recently widowed woman who didn't know how to clean her chimney. Blatter helped students study after school, taught gardening programs, gave free walkers to poor elderly people and lent the nonprofit's space to other organizations, sometimes in order to give victims of domestic violence a safe room.

On January 26, 2012, that

Blatter got the call at 4 a.m. She rushed right over. Her husband, Rocky, had rewired the building the week before, and she hoped that wasn't the cause. She didn't want him to blame himself. The fire department couldn't determine what caused the fire.

"I was just heartbroken," she said.

Dozens, maybe hundreds of people have been helped through the years by Molalla Communities That Care. In 2010, volunteer teacher Elma Chenevert spent time helping Lisa Hernandez (left) and Sandra Contreras prepare to get their GEDs.

Some things seemed odd to Blatter. She kept an expensive projector in her desk, but it wasn't there. Neither were some cameras and laptops.

Sure enough, there was more to it. Almost a year after the fire, a tip came in to the police department implicating Velarde, who was in the Clackamas County Jail for heroin possession. Police and the fire department did a little digging, confronted Velarde, and right away he confessed.

He stole the electronics, then lit the building on fire to cover it up, Clackamas County deputy district attorney Michael Wu said Thursday in court. Velarde may have been high on drugs at the time, his attorney, Troy Sandlin added. Police confirmed he sold the projector, laptops and cameras at a pawnshop the day of the fire.

On Thursday, Velarde pleaded guilty to arson and burglary but declined to make a statement.

Clackamas County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Jones sentenced him to three years and two month in prison, restitution of $44,369 to

120 hours of community service, three years of post-prison supervision and still-undetermined costs to the insurance company for the fire damage.

This was the building Molalla Communities That Care was using.

Blatter suspects Velarde heard about all the electronics through the grapevine of juvenile offenders who performed court-mandated community service through her organization. "My kids" she calls them. That's how she sees the pimple-faced teen who stood in front of her in court on Thursday, too. He's a kid. A kid that she might be able to help.

"When he comes out if he wants help, all he has to do is get a hold of me," Blatter said. "I'd be more than happy to get him on the right track."

--Heather Steeves