A community battling a city-wide problem
6:34 p.m. Saturday, October 4, 2008
"It was hard to see our community get like that," volunteer Molly Rockefeller said of graffiti that damages property in Topeka.
Rockefeller came out to help paint the town a different color, she was shocked to see how much graffiti was around the town.
Graffiti is a big problem in the Capital City.
So Keep America Beautiful and the Topeka Police joined forces to clean up the markings.
"We were just driving through normal neighborhoods, and just saw that, and just saw a lot of just random stuff like phone numbers," Rockefeller said.
49 News spoke with two volunteers about why they wanted to come out and help.
"I think it's really good. I mean, just to do a little bit for the community will go a long way," Mackenzie Lamott said.
But, Lamott was surprised to see where graffiti artists decided to paint.
"There was some on like people's houses, and stuff, and their gates, which surprised me," Lamott said.
Keep America Beautiful Executive Director Philicia McKee organized the clean up effort.
"We had about 90 volunteers show up and donate their afternoon on Saturday, which is a precious resource," McKee said.
And about 40 volunteers came from Fairlawn Heights Wesleyn Church.
"We really wanted to show our community that we really care about them. We don't want them to think we go into our box our church our building and that's it," its pastor said.
All ages came out to grab a paint brush and cover up unsightly graffiti.
And some jumped into white bio suits, so they wouldn't get paint on them.
McKee says she knows the problem might come back but, "if we keep after it, and we keep going after the graffiti, then I think it will eventually stop," she said.
"I really want to see our community be raised, I don't want to see it go down the dumps," Rockefeller said.
Keep America Beautiful is planning another graffiti clean up day in June.
Read more about their upcoming events at Topeka's Keep America Beautiful Web site.
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