Karis Community Church volunteers remove graffiti

People involved worked to prepare downtown for festival.

By Gretchen Mahan

Published Sept. 29, 2008

For the third time this year, Karis Community Church volunteers participated in a downtown graffiti cleanup on Saturday. This time, the volunteers focused on cleaning public property, removing graffiti from walls and unwanted stickers from light posts.

The group of about 15 people divided into three teams, working along Seventh and Cherry streets, as well as Peace Park. The project's purpose was to clean up the areas for the Roots 'N Blues 'N BBQ Festival, which will take place next weekend.

Karis pastoral assistant Rob Gaskin said the community work is an important part of the church's mission.

"It's an expression of our value system," he said.

The church lists values - words like truth, beauty, worship, community, mission, gospel and mercy - that it holds as a collective. Gaskin said cleaning up downtown includes both beauty and community, and the church members take that seriously.

"This very literally is our backyard," he said. "We've got work to do."

Freshman Mitch Creel, who does not attend Karis, joined the group as a part of an Army ROTC leadership program. Creel said he chose this work over other options because the group was cleaning up the downtown area where Creel spends much of his time.

Leigh Britt, volunteer coordinator for the City of Columbia, said Karis' work was different from other volunteer efforts. The difference is best represented by the initiative the church took to organize the project.

"Karis Church took the lead with this," Britt said. "They have pride in it, and I think that's what makes it so successful."

The group did not remove graffiti from the walls of private businesses because the substances they used for removing spray paint could potentially harm paint on buildings and signs.

A city-run graffiti hotline was created this month, allowing volunteers to directly communicate with private businesses in an effort to help make cleaning up downtown more effective.

When a company notices graffiti on its building, it can call the hotline. Karis or another organization will then send out people to eliminate the paint.

Volunteers hope to deter graffiti artists from defacing property.

Gaskin said he wanted to go beyond just stamping out the graffiti that people create.

"I want to know who these guys are," he said, adding that he wants to close a demographic gap and barrier he sees between the people who might go to his church and those who might construct the graffiti.

Karis pastor Kevin Larson brought his 5-year-old son Hadley to the event.