ST. LOUIS — A former north St. Louis Catholic Church received some much-needed clean-up and repair, Saturday. Volunteers turned out to beat back the bad carried out by vandals, a couple of weeks ago.
It happened at the Church of NonDenomination at Goodfellow Boulevard and Maple Avenue. Vandals knocked over large statues and destroyed musical equipment. Plus, they stole amplifiers and sound mixers.
Volunteer Robyn Narise swept debris off of an altar.
“It makes you want to cry,” she said. “I’m sorry. It just makes you want to cry to see how people can do something like this to God’s house.”
Pastor Jack Hill addressed volunteers who gave up their time.
“I want to thank everybody for coming, first off, and I appreciate your help,” said Hill. “I ask the question every time I come in – “Why?”
Volunteers don’t have answers as to why vandals struck a couple of weeks ago, but they do have the willingness to help and two church pews full of cleaning equipment.
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Volunteer Jennifer Sudekum said, “Pastor Hill’s daughter, Carrie, works at St. Joseph’s Academy, and we take care of our people. So, that’s why we’re here to help out.”
Justin Landherr, another volunteer, said, “We just felt like it’s the right thing to do. It’s terrible someone would do something like this, so we’re just trying to help them get their church back together so they can get back to servicing the community.”
“We don’t have any animosity,” said Hill. “We pray for the people. I look at it this way – they probably needed it worse than I did.”
At the same time, Hill realizes the vandals weren’t necessarily thieves. They didn’t steal much. They simply destroyed a lot of things, including his baby grand piano.
“There had to be a couple of them,” he said, “because it was a nice-sized piano. Why they did that, I don’t know. When the piano turned over and landed on its head, it smashed into pieces.”
Hill is working through the wiring on their sound system, determining what can be salvaged, and what needs to be replaced.
Church members are accepting donations to help them repair and replace what was lost. Anyone who wants to help with donations may go to the church’s website by clicking here.