Palisadian Shawn Anna, an avid Temescal Canyon hiker, wanted to memorialize the 15th anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings, an incident that claimed the life of his cousin Lauren Townsend.
Anna soon learned the downside of trying to do something nice in a public space and, instead, became a victim of vandalism.
On April 20, Anna brought a purchased wooden Ikea bench from his home to the top of a Temescal Canyon trail and affixed a plaque in memory of the horrific April 20, 1999, Columbine incident.
Anna returned that Thursday, April 24, excited to see his bench. To his shock, he discovered the bench had been smashed and destroyed.
“I’m assuming that some drunken teenagers are responsible, but I expected so much from our community,” Anna said. “There were people who loved it.”
Anna never filed a police report. He carried the smashed bench parts down the Temescal trail in early May. He’s contemplating replacing it with a metal or cement bench but is not sure if it will encounter the same fate.
Photo courtesy of Shawn Anna
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