Community support is helping Gray Middle School students in Tacoma rebound after vandals wiped out six months worth of work growing bonsai trees.
The students, members of the after school Bonsai Club, had been caring for about two dozen bonsai trees.
Marty Brown, an eighth grade teacher, is the club’s advisor. He first discovered the damage earlier this month.
"You can see they shattered the pots and they cut the trees off,” said Brown as he showed the spot near the greenhouse where the trees were destroyed.
The greenhouse door was also damaged.
"They found the trees and they took the tools, and they just went to town destroying them," said Brown.
Teacher Marty Brown says something good did come out of the vandalism (4/4) pic.twitter.com/8iBZ13d7Yz
— Natalie Swaby (@NSwabyKing5) May 31, 2017
Police continue to investigate the vandalism.
Nicole Brown, an eighth grader, is a member of the Bonsai Club.
"It's sad to know that there are people out there that will just break these plants, these living things, just because they feel like it," she said.
The plants were supposed to be sold as a fundraiser for the club, but the annual sale has been canceled.
"The News Tribune came out and did a story on that which snowballed into an article in the paper," said Brown.
Brown said an online fundraiser followed. In two days, more than $2,000 was raised.
“Even though bad things are going to happen,” he said, “When you have a community that cares, it is going to be OK.”
Photos: Vandals destroy bonsai trees
