PITTSFIELD, Mass. – A fresh blanket of snow for Pittsfield brought people out to sled down Clapp Park’s hill, and a community effort helped to bring Clapp Park's Little Sled Library back to life.

What You Need To Know

  • Snowed in Pittsfield was perfect for sledders Thursday

  • Clapp Park's Little Sled Library, recently vandalised, was open with more sleds

  • The community donated many after they found out about the stolen and broken sleds

  • A family was able to enjoy the sleds

The library at Clapp Park, which makes free sleds available to be borrowed, had been the victim of theft and vandalism last year, and its creator, Lindsey Marion, wasn’t sure it would continue.

After a Spectrum News 1 story about the issues aired, a number of people donated new sleds. Now, there are even more than before. 

“We just want inclusivity for everybody, you know, for the first thing being not everybody can afford to spend $18 to $25 on a sled; the second thing being, not everybody has time to go home and get their snow gear and grab a sled, so it’s just nice for somebody to be able to come and pick up a sled go down the hill a couple times and hopefully put it back so somebody can reuse it,” Marion said. 

The community donated so many sleds, a new and larger place to store them needed to be brought in. 

“This is what Pittsfield, its people that, you know, we don’t even ask for it. It's ‘oh, something happened to the sleds,’ and then people just kind of call us and make more sleds happen, so that’s Pittsfield,” Luke Marion said.

On Thursday, we found people enjoying the free sleds at the park.

Yaminette Rivera-Flores and her mother were visiting from a different state. 

“I never went sledding before,” Rivera-Flores said.

“We came to visit and we were trying to do something today, and he said, 'let's go sledding, and its super cool because they got a lot of stuff here.' We thought we were going to have to go shopping, but we don’t. So we're going to play a little bit with the snow,” Yaminah Flores said.

Marion said the sleds are here to stay as long as the city of Pittsfield supports the project. 

“It does take a community, and we are a strong community. And in the week we have asked for sleds just kind of proves the fact that love does squash hate, it really does, and we are just going to keep doing this,” Marion said.

Marion and her husband asks everyone to respect the sleds while they are here to keep people able to enjoy sledding.