Merizo community rallies together after park hit twice by vandals

Two times in one week. A public park in Merizo was hit by vandals first on Christmas Eve then again on Christmas night. And the community in the southern village hopes to put a stop to these criminals causing the holiday blues.
You saw shocking images first on KUAM on Christmas Eve, the island's patron saint - Santa Marian Kamalen – was tied with chains. Many speculated asking what would prompt someone to do such a thing? But the next evening, the Merizo park was hit again at another iconic site: the Heart of Malesso.
Alaessia Mansapit is part of the team that brought the love to this tip of the island. "It has already been taken care of with GPD. We've been working closely with them to make sure that this person does get the help that the individual needs," she told KUAM News.
Mansapit says they believe the individual is the same one tied to the Santan Maria Kamalen incident. And although eyewitnesses and surveillance footage shows the individual, village Mayor Ernest Chargualaf says it's inconclusive.
"We were able to catch the individual looking down, but we didn't see the face so it's not a clear cut evidence of the individual," she added.
The Heart of Malesso was intended to be a temporary display in February, but became a high attraction to residents and tourists. Cruz says they now plan to temporarily remove the heart to build a more sustainable one suited for Guam's weather.
"We figured that we make it something long-term, because it has been an icon really for Merizo and everyone else around there so we will go ahead and we're looking at restoring the wood we used in the beginning to use something that's much more sustainable, something that can handle certain conditions you know with the weather," she said.
Despite what has happened, Cruz says the intent isn't to drive a negative reaction from the community, but rather to shed light on what has happened to raise awareness to the bigger issue.
"During this time, a lot of people are actually a lot of people are going through personal things in their lives, " she shared, also saying, "We don't want to like point fingers at the person responsible. We really just want to move past this."