The snow that blasted six inches onto the Due West landscape on January 10th was a welcome site......at first. Classes were shut down for three days as most of us enjoyed the unusual thrill of playing in the snow in South Carolina. Unfortunately, fun gets taken too far some time and this snow storm provided that for Erskine Athletics. A four-wheeler adventurer decided our soccer/lacrosse field would be a great place to tear the snow up with "donuts." The damage has been severe to the field. As the snow finally cleared and slowly dries, we realize the damage is even much worse than originally believed. It will cost a fairly large sum to repair the damages so that lacrosse will be able to play games at the end of the month. It has also forced our lacrosse team to have limited practice time as they prepare for their season. The lacrosse team has found limited alternatives to practice and has led to frustrations and anger towards others in our department. Those frustrations can all be linked back to one act of fun.
As I walked the field this morning I wondered if all that instant fun for that person was really worth it. Their few minutes of joy set us back for months and financially probably longer than that. It is quite sickening to look at and think about. I know the offenders will never come clean or be identified but their act of fun caused damaged to a lot of people. Yes, we know now that we have responsibility in this. We should have locks on our gates so that violators would not have access. Yet we live in a small village where trust is supreme and the respect for other people's property is fairly high so you can't blame us for having a false sense of security. We will be smarter and less naive from now on. Unfortunately the next time it snows in Due West, I won't be quite as excited because I realize people wanting to have fun can do damage that we might not be able to repair.
