‘It turned into a really powerful message’: Resort owners grateful for support after vandalism

When Mabel Lake Resort and Marina owners Terry and Sharon Laursen started their day on Canada Day long weekend, they thought it would be like any other long weekend in their 48-year history, only this time, they were heartbroken, after vandals tore through their property.

“Some person went into our laundry facilities where we have washrooms and dryers for people that are there, we have a lending library for videos and stuff like that and they took a fire extinguisher off the wall and they just proceeded to spray all our machines and the lending library and the table and whatever they could with the foam from the fire extinguisher,” explained owner Sharon Laursen.

The vandal also filled the men’s washroom with fire extinguisher foam and sprayed throughout the resort area.

The person then hit the resort’s Beach Café stealing cash, items from the store, and destroying several buckets of ice cream.

Laursen said the damages were only around $1000, but the feeling of intrusion felt much worse.

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But through the painful dark moments, Laursen said that the outpouring of support has been nothing short of remarkable.

She posted a photo on Facebook, describing the vandalism that hit the resort.

The post has since reached 1,300 shares and over 200 comments from people across the country

“It’s turned into a really powerful message about how many people care about Mabel Lake resort which is really nice. The Laursen family, we’ve been running this resort since 1971, this will be our 48^th year and some days you just go ‘why are we doing this? we are getting old, and it hurts too much.’”

When the vandalism struck Laursen said doubt began to set in.

“I was like ‘let’s just sell it, let’s get out of here. I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to put up with the new generation. I’m just too old for this’ and that’s how I walked around all day feeling and then since then all of these people have come up to me and said ‘what you do is so important,’” she said.

The resort is offering a $750 reward for any information that may lead to an arrest.