Girl Scouts Fight Back Against Graffiti in South Wenatchee
With a little help from the Wenatchee Police Department
On Saturday, Sept. 30 Girl Scouts and Brownies met Wenatchee Police Department Corporal Ron Wilson in South Wenatchee, and the group fought back against gang graffiti with paintbrushes in hand.
“We get our gang members that will come up and tag anything they can,” Cpl. Wilson said. “So today we’re trying to get the kids to come in and cover it up and maybe put up a mural of their own to try to (deter) people from tagging up our beautiful city of Wenatchee.”
Seven-year-old Brownie Etta Witham was one of the children who participated in the community service project. Standing in front of a concrete wall at Cascade Street and Crawford Avenue, she explained how the girls were making their mark on the neighborhood.
“Now we’re just making it better, and we put our handprints on there for little pretty stuff, like flowers and butterflies and we put our names on there so they knew who we were,” she said.
The Girl Scouts make the world a better place, Troop Leader Jackie Malone said, and projects like this help the girls know that they can make a difference.
Etta’s mother, Jill Witham, said the residents of the neighborhood and people passing through shouldn’t have to look at graffiti like that and she wants to instill a sense of public service in her daughter.
“It’s important to the girls to teach them that we are part of the community and we help each other out,” she said.
Wilson said the funds for the paint came from the Volunteers in Police Service (or VIPS) budget. Folks can learn more about how to support projects like this or become a VIP, you can visit their website to learn more and/or contact him at (509) 888-4113 or by email at rwilson@wenatcheewa.gov.
“To see these kids out here happy, painting and doing something positive in our community is amazing,” Wilson said.
Watch a short video of the project here:
A Special Shout Out
I’d like to thank Sofiia Bukovstov for conducting the interviews for this story, and her dad Oleg for taking photos and video. I was out of town for work this past weekend, so I set up the shoot, wrote questions for various subjects, and then sent Oleg to cover it for me. He took Sofiia, who is 12, along to help and she asked the questions and translated for him.
The Bukovstovs are from Ukraine and I did a story on them for Crosscut after they came to Washington as refugees. I was impressed with Oleg’s photography and videography skills and encouraged him to set up shop and provide those services professionally, which he did. I also contract him to take photos and videos for me for projects and stories as needed and love his work.
I left a few of the questions Sofiia asked in the video above so folks can hear her, and there’s a special shout-out to her at the end. I think this project turned out even better because she was the one asking the questions, and I wanted to give both of them a shout-out and thank you.
Wonderful example of how to use existing groups to not only clean up but instill community pride. Something to emulate everywhere.
Wonderful Service Project!