Strathmore locals jump in to clean up vandalism
By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Photo Courtesy of Chris Fuchs
After a string of vandalisms appeared around town, local Chris Fuchs resident and his daughters decided to do something about it.
Fuchs explained after coming across some of the vandalism on their local elementary school, his daughter felt very strongly about wanting to clean up the markings.
“My oldest daughter, Vanessa (10), goes to Grade 5 at Brentwood. We took a bike ride as a test because she wanted to start riding her bike to school and we saw the vandalism right away. It was pretty upsetting,” he said. “It was a good opportunity to talk to her about racism, because she didn’t understand until I pointed out what was sprayed there was a bad word. Her best friend is African American, so she felt pretty passionate about going back and cleaning that up.”
After the Tom Saddler Bridge sign was also vandalized, Fuchs said he had seen a great amount of people complaining about the markings, but nobody was jumping in to do anything about it.
Having everything already ready to go, Fuchs said he and his daughters jumped in to also clean up the sign.
“We had the perfect cleaner, we had everything ready and we were going for a bike ride that day anyway. We just changed our route and stopped there quick,” he said. “We have had lots of good talks about giving back to our community. The girls do not want any reward for this, they just want donations put back into the community.”
Though Fuchs said he is regularly collecting food and clothing donations for the homeless, this is the first time his girls have really stepped up and wanted to make a difference themselves.
He added the impact of their actions has already been visible around their community and throughout the town.
“When we went to go clean up Brentwood school, two of her classmates saw what we were doing and they stopped to help us right away. My daughter has already encouraged her friends to also step up and do the right thing,” he said. “Every day, they go to school excited to spread some positivity and they come home telling me they did a good thing. It’s an everyday encouragement with us. This was just the first time they stepped up big like this and I was very impressed.”
Strathmore Mayor Pat Fule said he was extremely pleased to see someone from the community stepping up to help eliminate vandalism from the town.
“I am pretty proud of Chris. He is a young man who I taught years ago and he is working hard to teach his kids the right way to do things in life and the way to stand up to things that have been done,” he said. “He is teaching them valuable lessons as far as what it looks like to be good community people, and they were quick to react and undo the damage that was done by some people who obviously don’t have much better to do.”