TEENAGERS VANDALIZE – APOLOGY TO THE HIBERNIA SRA STAFF FROM A CONCERNED CAMPER
With the good comes the bad. The following is a guest testimonial/commentary by camper and KLPW member Larry Matthews.
While neither I, nor any of my camping friends and/or family were involved, I am a camper and I’d like to offer my sincere apologies to the staff at Hibernia State Recreation Area at Kerr Lake for the extra effort they had to put forth a couple of weeks ago when four teenagers trashed the Area 2 men’s bath house.
When we arrived for our 10 day stay, I thought “how nice the bath house looked.” It was clean and fresh. Then a fellow camper allowed their four (4) teenagers to be out unsupervised after midnight one night. While everyone was sleeping, the boys proceeded to throw toilet paper wads all over the place, stop up every toilet and to cut and/or to burn the shower curtains. Fortunately, the camp host observed them hanging around the bath house from his trailer that night and knew exactly who had trashed the bath house when he got a knock at his door early the next morning.
The four young culprits were quickly identified by the rangers and required to suit up with those big nasty yellow gloves and help clean up their mess. But, they could not repair the curtains. (And it’s doubtful that with no budget, the state can replace them.) Then, they were asked to leave the campground. Kudos to the rangers for making them pack up and leave immediately.
As a camper who loves the lake and our state parks, I was not surprised, but truly appalled at what happened. I know that this blog has had some often harsh commentaries about the parks and staff. But, a spade should be called a spade, and fellow campers…for a parent to allow their kids out that late without supervision is unacceptable and especially that they be allowed to trash state property. (Boys will be boys, I know, I raised 2.)
Please, keeping your kids under control is your responsibility first, before the rangers. And most of all, let’s all take care of our parks and teach our kids to do so, too.
Again, Hibernia park staff, on behalf of the good campers, I apologize for your inconvenience caused by those kids and thank you for your efforts. You are good hard working people who should not have to endure that kind of drama and trauma. Thanks for all you do!
P.S. The refurbished sites in Area 2 (93-99) are the talk and the rage of the campground all week. They are awesome!