Some New Westminster students learned a lesson in community service by helping to clean up a church sprayed with obscene graffiti.
Saint Michael the Archangel Church, located just across the border in Burnaby, is attended by Boston Bruin player Milan Lucic. On Feb. 11, someone sprayed Go Canucks Go, profanity and phallic symbols on the side of the church.
Nikola Djasic, the church's caretaker, was at a loss to explain the motivation for spraying graffiti on the church.
"I don't know," he said. "Lots of people are Canucks fans from here too. They are really mad."
After winning the Stanley Cup in 2011, Lucic brought the coveted trophy to the church and celebrated with the Serbian-Canadian community. The Bruins beat the Canucks in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals.
Della Wittig, whose children attend Lord Kelvin Elementary School, heard about the incident on Friday morning in the news. She contacted the school's principal and asked if Grade 7 students could go and help clean up the church.
"When I saw it, I thought this is a learning moment and we can't let it pass us by," she said. "I thought it was a great teachable moment."
Wittig and fellow parent Kirstin Shaw gathered cleaning supplies to help put the plan into action. Soon, a class of Grade 7 students arrived at the church and got to work.
"They cleaned of the glass," Wittig said. "They did a fabulous job."
Jason Boyne, general manager of the local branch of Goodbye Graffiti, also dropped by the church after hearing about the graffiti. He asked that the students not wash the graffiti off the wall, as his company wanted the wall dry so it could paint over the graffiti.
Although she was offended by the vandals' actions, Wittig said the timing was great because the Grade 7 students were in the midst of learning about community service at school.
"They were gung ho," she said. "They worked really hard. It's cold out. Their hands were freezing."
The cleanup had special meaning for some of the students in Heather Scharf's Grade 7 class. "Three of the students go to this church," she said. "For them it's neat to see your classmates help you. Everyone wanted to be part of it and help."
Mark Ruus' Grade 7 class was planning to help clean up when they were informed the student cleanup was contained to the windows and their assistance wouldn't be required.
Boyne said his company removes racist or offensive graffiti from buildings like churches.
"There's no charge," he said. "They had the paint too so it works out great."
Saint Michael the Archangel had estimated it would cost about $5,000 to remove the graffiti. The students removed graffiti from the church's windows and Goodbye Graffiti painted over the graffiti on the wall - at no charge to the church.
The Serbian community unveiled its new church and cultural centre at 7837 Canada Way in 2005.
