By Shavonne Walker

shavonne.walker@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — The Salvation Army is looking to see how it can continue some programs this week after someone vandalized the transport bus used for youth camps and other activities.

The bus was rendered nonoperational, Salvation Army officials said.

“It really hurt us. We use the bus on a daily basis. We use it to pick up food from Food Lion in Spencer and Food Lion on Jake Alexander and Sheetz,” said Melissa Cline, a youth leader.

The food is for the agency’s social services program that is given to people in need.

Cline said officials had to call the Salvation Army’s thrift store to use a box truck to transport items. She said it wasn’t ideal because there was already stuff in the truck. Workers had to push the items in the truck to the back to make room for the food. The bus is also used to get items from the food bank in Charlotte.

Cline said she had to cancel the appointment because she wasn’t able to travel to Charlotte.

She had to call parents to take four teenagers to the camp this weekend since Salvation Army staff aren’t allowed to transport children in their personal vehicles.

“That was discouraging when I came up,” Cline said. “The parents depend on us to pick them up.”

Salvation Army staff also had to notify about 20 people on Sunday that they could not pick them up for church.

The minibus was parked at the Army Corps of Engineers offices and community center, 620 Bringle Ferry Road. It was discovered Saturday morning by Cline. She was there to get the bus to be used to transport teens for a weekend youth camp at the Salvation Army North and South Carolina camp in Davidson County.

The bus sustained damage to electrical wires and panels as well as windows and the steering column. Salvation Army officials said vandals wrote profanity on the inside of the bus.

There was also damage to the radiator.

Salisbury police say the back door of the bus was open.

The bus was parked between noon Friday and 9 a.m. Saturday.

“At this moment, we don’t really know what we will do. I filed an insurance claim. We really don’t have funds to buy another one or get it fixed. Our funds are very low,” Cline said.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the Salisbury Police Department at 704-797-4253 or CrimeStoppers at 866-639-5245.