Volunteer repairing Kings Castle Provincial Park animal figurines
'He wanted to show his daughter there's always good in this world to overcome the negative'
The concrete animal critters of Kings Castle Provincial Park are now on the mend after they were found vandalized last week.
Darlene Cuddy, who has served as an officer at the park for the last 20 years, said it's not the first time the park has been vandalized — a similar incident happened a few years ago.
Cuddy said she's been overwhelmed with calls and text messages of support from the community, with some people making calls from Nova Scotia.
"About 90 per cent of the messages and texts are, 'What can we do?'"
'Overcoming the negative'
One community member in particular, Leon Murphy, has been volunteering his spare time and skills to repair the statues.
"Some of the parts on mama bear had to be completely remade, right from the stump of her arm. So he's been using chicken wire, tape, cement ... form hands and arms and ears. It looks better than it ever did," she said.
"He has a little girl," Cuddy said. "He wanted to show his daughter there's always good in this world to overcome the negative."
Park staff are ready to apply the finishing touches to the figurines with a nice coat of paint once Murphy has completed his part.
'Everything's under control'
The statues have been fixtures of the park and enjoyed by kids and families for nearly 50 years. Cuddy said she put bandages on the figurines after the incident.
"It sounds kind of funny but when you see a little one coming to the park, it breaks their heart and it broke mine too," she said.
"What I did is, put a sling on a couple of them, put some gauze and the odd cartoon character Band-Aids so that when the kids did come in, they would see, 'Okay, everything's under control they're just going to have to take time to heal.'"
Cuddy said the repairs are expected to be finished by June 7.
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With files from Angela Walker