If whoever destroyed a piano at Musser Park intended to discourage the community, he or she succeeded — and failed.

The piano, one of several placed around the city in public locations as part of the Lancaster Keys for the City program, was heavily damaged by vandals sometime early Saturday morning.

"They broke off the hammers that are inside the piano that hit the strings, so you can't play it anymore," said John Gerdy, president of Music For Everyone, which oversees the program.

The piano's exterior, as well as artwork that adorned it, also was damaged.

"Obviously, we're saddened," Gerdy said. "It's a senseless act of vandalism to what is a beautiful instrument and wonderful work of art that had brought a lot of joy to a lot of people."

The piano was to be used Aug. 6 during a barbecue cook-off at the park for Big Brothers Big Sisters.

But if the vandals intended to squelch the music that the piano was destined to play at the event, they failed. Within two hours of the news of the vandalism being made public Monday, Big Brothers Big Sisters had five offers of replacement instruments.

"So it's like, here's one bad apple, which is disappointing," Gerdy said. "But on the other hand, it shows once again there are far, far, far more good people in Lancaster who step up and pull together for the community as a whole."

Melissa Siwiec, of Big Brothers Big Sisters, said the five offers arrived Monday before she returned from lunch from callers "who just really wanted to send their old piano to do something good."

She said the response was gratifying.

"Two things have happened as a result of this that I thought were surprising," she said. "One is that we've had the five offers of pianos, and, secondly, when we showed up this morning to look at (the damaged piano), one of the neighbors had put a sign on it saying 'Why? To destroy, everyone loses.' "

Siwiec said it was wonderful to see that "while someone in the neighborhood destroyed what was there, many others are very much concerned that it happened and don't want to see that kind of behavior in their park."

The replacement piano selected, Siwiec said, is one that can be played manually or serve as a player piano.

"We thought that would be cool because our Aug. 6 event has a western theme, and we thought we could stick the rolls in and let it play," Siwiec said. "That'd be a really neat feature."

Artwork on the damaged piano consisted of sheet music decoupaged on the wooden case, as well as drawings of adults playing instruments and singing with children. It was done by local artist Chris Fogel, who has consented to apply his talents to the replacement.

"He's just devastated by the piano's vandalism, because his whole point was to help out a nonprofit so they can benefit from his art," Siwiec said.

Gerdy said the way the community has rallied to replace the damaged piano shows the city's commitment to the program.

"The people of Lancaster are stepping up because they believe this program has been something really positive for the city, and they have enjoyed it and embraced it," he said.

But there was another reason the vandalized piano needed to be replaced.

"It's as (Siwiec) said to me," Gerdy said. "If we don't replace it, they've won."

lalexander@lnpnews.com