Piedmont Youth Hockey Association hosts ‘Piedmont Paint Night’

DULUTH, Minn. — Four days after vandals tore through the Piedmont Youth Hockey Association’s main hub, the clean-up continues.

Vandals caused significant damage at this community center, which serves as the home base for the Piedmont Youth Hockey Association. Paint on the floors, graffiti on the walls, broken glass, garbage, and toilet paper everywhere. A board member discovered all of this on Sunday. Duluth police were called, and a criminal investigation began.

“We all walked in and saw the damage that had taken place. And our initial thoughts, obviously, we were shocked,” said Abbey Strong, Vice President of Peidmont Youth Hockey Association. “So you know, shocking to see something like this happen to a youth building, and then you’re angry, and then you’re sad, because your kids are with you.”

The hockey association took to Facebook, sharing the damage and looking to the community for help through a fundraising site. More than $5,000 in donations quickly came in, and volunteers from multiple hockey associations showed up to clean up.

“We just came together and made a plan, got it out there, and the community came out and helped us,” said Strong. “About 35 people showed up on Sunday, and we started cleaning, and then the donations started coming in. It was incredible to see the community support.”

Although the situation started badly, it has quickly become a positive showing of how strong the hockey community is while teaching everyone a lifelong lesson.

“I think that if something were to happen to Woodland, I would hope that they would come to us, or we could get help from them, and I also want to support all the little younger communities for hockey,” said Christopher Browicz, hockey player for the Duluth B1 Squirts. “I hate. It’s dumb. People shouldn’t do it. So I wish I would just stop.”

The Piedmont Youth Hockey Association has installed cameras to help prevent this from happening in the future. As of right now, the police do not have any new updates and are still investigating.