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Show things that destroy property. prop-erty. All the campgrounds at l ' Flaming Gorge are for the enjoyment of the people who visit here. It's hard for us to understand why people destroy things that are built for them to use and enjoy. I would like to ask two favors of you. First, that you tell your friends why it is wrong to damage the property of others, and j second, that you allow the i Forest Service to use your ! letter to tell other visitors ! to Flaming Gorge that vandalism van-dalism Is wrong and hurts ; everyone. Thank you for being honest." hon-est." Sincerely, John C. Coombs, Area Ranger We enjoyed reading your letter and appreciated the time you took to write It. It tells us you are very sorry about the damage you did to the picnic table. Very few people who van -dalize property ever admit ad-mit it or pay for the property prop-erty damaged. Your father fath-er did you a great favor by explaining vandalism to you and having you earn money to pay for the dam -age you caused. He must care about you very much. We will put your $2.00 in the fund which will repair the table that you dam aged. Every year we spend thousands of dollars at Flaming Gorge fixingthlngs people destroy. People visiting vis-iting here break windows, carve up picnic tables, shoot holes in signs, cut down trees in campgrounds, throw garbage cans in the lake, set toilet buildings on fire, pull water pipes Iout of the ground, smash drinking fountains with rocks, and many other Postiuc approach to reducing vandalism Dad explained to me what vandalism is and what a foolish thing I did. I am sorry and will be sure to be extra careful in the future to protect any property prop-erty belonging to someone else." Sincerely, Frederick A. Sadowski, Jr. Dear Frederick: "Today we received your letter with $2.00 enclosed. Forest Service personnel person-nel were encouraged by a letter sent to the Flaming Flam-ing Gorge National Recreation Recre-ation Area by 10 -year -old Frederick A. Sadowski, Jr., of Arvada, Colorado. John Coombs, Area Ranger at Dutch John, Utah, believes the letter demonstrates a positive approach to reducing re-ducing vandalism at recreation rec-reation sites. Following are the youth's letter and the Ranger's re -sponse: Gentlemen: "I am sending $2.00 because be-cause I want to apologize and partly pay for what I did. My family and I were visiting the Flaming Gorge Recreational Area where I damaged one of the picnic tables while fooling around with my pocket knife. I am 10 years old and my dad said I would have to earn the money to send you by cutting a neighbor's grass. |