HURRICANE, W.Va. (WSAZ) – After young athletes suffered an unexpected loss off the field, community members have stepped up to help them out.
A soccer field near West Teays Valley Elementary is used by the Hurricane Middle soccer team and other leagues.
A riding lawnmower and weed eater were stolen from the property in mid-October.
“It was just really disappointing that someone would want to steal from a soccer team,” Rob Benson, the coach of the middle school boys team, said.
The team’s budget was not big enough to replace the stolen items.
Hurricane Mayor Scott Edwards started making phone calls organizing a fundraiser.
Wednesday evening, the young players got a reminder there’s still a kinder side of humanity.
They gathered at Ryan Walker’s power equipment business in Hurricane to accept a brand new lawnmower and weed eater.
“It’s not the kids’ fault,” Walker said. “We gotta try to help keep them busy and involved in sports. That helps them, I think. Growing up, I always played something.”
Walker cut the price of one of his mowers in half, and other businesses and community members pitched in to pay for it.
“Our community loves to help people,” Mayor Edwards said.
“It’s really exciting all these people want to come together and make us better,” soccer player Tanner Gum said.
“There were so many people who stepped up and were so generous in such a quick time period,” Coach Benson said.
The coach says excess money donated will go towards upgrading their security and facility where the items are stored to hopefully prevent something like this from happening again.
They say the new mower can get the field mowed in about half the time it took the previous mower, which was about 20 years old.
No arrests have been made in the case, and the stolen items have not been located, the mayor said.
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