Police are investigating an act of vandalism at Morgantown’s First Presbyterian Church.
On Friday night, someone threw two separate bricks through two different doors at the church, located at the intersection of Spruce Street and Forest Avenue, the Rev. Zachary Morton said. The doors were made of glass and shattered.
The first church member got down there about 25 minutes after police alerted him and found the doors already boarded up. “So, we’re grateful for their quick response,” Morton said.
Morgantown Communications Director Andrew Stacy said the city’s police make every attempt to secure buildings from further criminal activity and in some cases that means working with the fire department to board up broken glass entries or windows.
The incident was captured on camera and the reverend said the church is cooperating with the police.
Stacy said Morgantown Police Department is investigating.
Morton said the doors are an expense the church can endure and he wants to use the incident to highlight some of the larger substance abuse issues involved.
“Honestly we think we know who it was that did it and we know that they, quite frankly, struggle with some substance abuse issues,” Morton said, noting it was not one of the area’s unhoused population. “But you know recovery and harm reduction and rehabilitation facilities are services that generally are lacking in our state. So, we kinda know this person, their story a little bit and if we do any kind of fundraiser, we think it might be around raising money for Health Right and their peer recovery groups.”
Hours after talking to The Dominion Post and after multiple people asked about donating to help fix the door, the church did just that.
“Therefore, in lieu of donations to repair our damaged doors, we are asking people to contribute to the Peer Recovery and Harm Reduction program at Milan Puskar Health Right – a free community clinic that does incredible work serving many of our most vulnerable neighbors,” the fundraiser, available through the “First Presbyterian Church Morgantown” Facebook page, said.
Morton said the church does a lot of substance abuse work and peer recovery groups are generally underfunded.
While the situation is unfortunate and “we don’t want it to happen ever again,” Morton said, “Nothing’s going to deter us from being a welcoming, hospitable, congregation to each and every person no matter what and this is just an example of that.”
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