Nearly two years’ work, $10,000 worth of fundraising and a considerable amount of donated labor went up in flames last week when the greenhouse at Sunny Hills Elementary School burned to the ground in what some believe was an arson.

Girl Scout Troop 50613 took on the project during their fourth-grade year, organizing a “Cookies for Santa” fundraiser and a “Spring Fling, Go Green” dance that brought in $3,000 in donations. After the girls’ fundraising efforts, the project was short by about $6,500, which the Sunny Hills PTA donated, troop leader Carol Stamper said.

The summer before the troop’s fifth-grade year, they worked with their parents to clear an area for the greenhouse, bring in gravel and put together the greenhouse.

“I think the girls were so full of pride,” Stamper said. “Now, they feel like why would someone do that — why would they hurt something that we worked so hard for?”

The fire was the final act in a long string of vandalism cases that began nearly as soon as the structure was put in place, Stamper said. Heaters were stolen and someone repeatedly damaged the structure, pushing out panels, breaking things and leaving burns from cigarettes and lighters, parents said. At one point, parents decided to leave the greenhouse unlocked, thinking that if the vandals could get inside and see that it didn’t contain much of value, they might lose interest. Unfortunately, the strategy didn’t work.

“We never really got to use the greenhouse all that much because it was getting so vandalized,” said Lori Walters, treasurer for the Sunny Hills PTA and also a Girl Scout troop leader. Classrooms of kids would plant seeds, but when the vandals broke panels out of the structure, the seedlings would freeze and die, she said. “We were hoping to do something about it.”

PTA leaders and others in the school community had talked about possibly erecting a tall fence or cage around the greenhouse, but that would put them right back at the beginning again in terms of fencing.

“We have insurance, but we just feel like we can’t rebuild it unless we can figure out a way to keep it safe,” Walters said. “It’s so disappointing.”

The Eastside Fire and Rescue investigator assigned to the case was unavailable this week, but school district officials believe the fire was set at about 1 a.m. on July 10.

“Luckily, the flames burned straight upward so that the nearby portables were untouched,” Director of Communication Sara Niegowski wrote in an e-mail. The district has filed a claim with its insurance pool.

The project was born through the brainstorming of fourth-grade teacher Jane Ulrich and first-grade teacher Kathy Dunn, Stamper said. Ulrich had already done a Northwest garden with her students, and Dunn’s classes planted seeds each year. The two had applied for grants for a greenhouse, but with no success.

“We figured that was something we could do for our bronze award,” Stamper explained. “It was exciting and a concrete project the troop could do.”

Walters said that in addition to the Girl Scout fundraising and the PTA contribution, a Sunny Hills parent died and that the family called and wanted to donate some of the memorial fund to the effort.

“It was all a labor of love, really,” Walters said. “The vandalism has been an ongoing thing, but we never thought it would get to this. It’s just sad.”