Police said at least three different areas on and near memorial were defaced with racist and anti-Semitic graffiti this week. Officials had estimated that it would take approximately $20,000 to repair the damages.
Dena Gray said she wanted to help.
"My first feeling was sick at my stomach. I just couldn't see this," Gray told KTVB. "When I finally saw a figure that they said it was going to take, I jumped on it.
"I had the money to do it and I thought what better place to spend it?" Gray said. "You can't sit back and let things like this happen or you're just going to end up in a mess, and I just felt that somebody's got to do something."
Dan Prinzing, the executive director of the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights in Boise, said the community's reaction was encouraging.
It's that love of a community that's rallying now to replace, repair and enhance that,” Prinzing told KTVB. “This does not go away. Somebody tries to attack but they cannot etch away at the meaning of the memorial."
Boise Police Chief Bill Bones called the vandalism “a cowardly, criminal act.”
The crime “was committed because somebody hates others simply because of who they are, and really it's out of ignorance," he told KTVB.
Bones said police are treating the case as a possible hate crime.
About the Author