SEE SOMETHING, DO SOMETHING: One Family Cleans Up Local Park

By ERIN LARISON

The Kokomo Post staff

When local resident Amanda Vetor went to Northside Park to play dinger ball with her kids, friends and boyfriend, she got more than she bargained for. 

She expected an afternoon of ball and laugher. What she found was “a wreck.” 

“We found crack pipes, all kinds of stuff. It was bad,” Vetor said. “… I don’t want my kids thinking that is normal, nor did I want them there.”

So she grabbed her keys, headed to the store and came back to the park armed with supplies and a load of determination. While her friends played dinger ball -- that’s baseball with tennis balls and no gloves, by the way -- she and her family cleaned the dugout and painted over the graffiti. 

When she made a small post about it on Facebook, the story went low-key viral, being shared dozens of times throughout the city. Vetor said she consistently heard that people were proud of her and that the community needs more people like her. 

“You are those people,” she said. “Go do something. It doesn’t take a special kind of person.”

She said she hopes her kids learned that if you see something, you can do something. 

“I would hope it teaches them that even though it’s not their mess, they can do something about it. They don’t have to leave it how they found it.”