By Cecily Barnes
Late in the evening of Sept. 11, a vandal covered the Congress Springs Park boys' bathroom and announcer's booth with nearly 10 feet of red spray-painted letters. The letters were practically illegible, but the graffiti added a tattered feeling to the park.
The next day two teams of 8- and 9-year-old boys and their parents showed up for a soccer match at the park. They couldn't help notice the conspicuous eyesore, but most just gawked a little and then carried on with warm-up activities and unloading soccer balls.
But frustrated father Mike Reed phoned the Sheriff's Department and went home to grab a wire scrubber and paint-removal chemicals.
"I see no reason to mark up other people's property. I don't like the way it looks, and I don't understand the message," Reed said.
Later in the day, Reed returned to the park and tried his best to scrub away the graffiti. After a few minutes, Reed gave up and was about to leave when four young soccer players approached to see if they could help. Reed turned the project over to Christopher Urquhort, 8, C.J. Clark, 9, Evan Blomquist, 9, and Adam Zoltan, 9.
"They scraped for a good hour or so trying to get the graffiti off the wall," Reed said. "I was real proud. I didn't even know them from the years before, but they just wanted to help."
But try as they might, the boys couldn't quite scrub away the paint. Finally they went home, and the next day city maintenance officials showed up and removed the paint with high-powered water pressure.
But Reed called the Saratoga News to say that four young boys had performed an invaluable service to the community. Reed emphasized how much community spirit and responsibility the boys showed by offering to help out.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, October 23, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved