Organization helps community group after garden vandalized, tools stolen

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A community organization is helping a group that helps mentors thousands of young men after their community garden was broken into.

“I was a little shocked at first because everybody in the surrounding community knows what we do,” member Denzil Xavier said.

The Males Place is a Charlotte organization that guides young men into manhood and one of their activities is maintaining a community garden.

“Oh, it means a lot to me because my grandfather taught me to garden when I was a little girl, 7 years old, so I was very excited to see this come to our community,” said community member Bernice Smith.

This week, group members found out that someone broke into their shed twice and stole garden tools and supplies and vandalized their garden.

“This tragedy just speaks to why this work is important, and sometimes out of tragedy, you could have tremendous blessings,” said Reggie Singleton, founder and executive director of The Males Place Inc.

After hearing about the incident, The Charlotte Community ToolBank sent the group new tools to replace the ones that were stolen and a donation.

“We love that they help feed their community through this garden and any little bit that we can do we want to be able to help,” said Maureen Kruger, executive director of the Charlotte Community ToolBank.

Police said they still haven’t found the person responsible for the crime, but The Males Place said they refuse to allow the incident to stop them.

“I don’t know what those people were going through that made them feel as if they needed to do what they did, but we're going to keep on doing our best to help the community and keep growing,” Singleton said.

Cox Media Group