Cindy Parker wasn't going to let the fact that the turnout Saturday for a volunteer cleanup of Father Marinaro Park was sparse or that vandals had again sprayed graffiti over the skate park concession stand deter her from trying to make the park cleaner and safer. .

Cindy Parker wasn't going to let it get her down. The fact that the turnout Saturday for a volunteer cleanup of Father Marinaro Park was sparse didn't ruffle her. The fact vandals had again sprayed graffiti over the skate park concession stand just days after two of her sons had repainted the building didn't dismay her either.

“I'm a little disappointed,” said the Lyndora woman as she and her sons, Chris and Andrew, prepared to sweep up trash and debris in the skate park.

“But that makes me more motivated to get more people involved. I think this park has been written off by people, which is unfair,” she said.

“People deserve to have a clean, safe fun environment,” she said, which is the long-term goal of her South Side Park Group.

This is an excerpt from a story that appears in Monday's Butler Eagle.