BRAINERD — The bridge at Kiwanis Park is now free of graffiti, thanks to a local nonprofit.
Members of Black Belts Don’t Quit, a nonprofit arm of Team Ascension Martial Arts in Brainerd, worked with the city and other community groups to paint over expletives and other graffiti covering the Mississippi River bridge under College Drive.
Tim Speier / Brainerd Dispatch
“We drove past it one day, and we saw just how bad it had gotten,” Kendall Haney, a member of Black Belts Don’t Quit, said Tuesday, May 28. “And we were thinking to ourselves that one of the biggest parts of being a black belt, to us, is being able to serve others and serve our community, and we wanted to show what a black belt is by coming out here and painting our bridge.”
Last year, we put 15 gallons on. We had to reload and get a little more, and the 15 minutes we were gone, it was already graffitied.
Shawn Middagh, street and sewer foreman
It’s a project the city would have otherwise undertaken. Street and Sewer Foreman Shawn Middagh said his crew paints over the graffiti-riddled bridge every year.
“Last year, we put 15 gallons on,” Middagh said. “We had to reload and get a little more, and the 15 minutes we were gone, it was already graffitied, so this is an ongoing issue with us. We try to continue throughout the summer, the painting months to keep this as clean as possible.”
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This year, the city supplied all the paint and equipment the group would need and allowed Black Belts Don’t Quit to take on the project. They worked with some of their martial arts students and community groups like Sertoma and Brainerd Lakes Area Drug Education.
“The bridge is a real opportunity to kind of show what we mean when we say black belts don’t quit,” Haney said, “and what it means to be a black belt and leading by example for our students, especially, how you go out to your community and you take care of this place like the city takes care of you.”
Haney, who painted the bridge along with her family members and other volunteers, hopes there’s a lesson in there for those who deface the bridge as well.
“If you show kids how to take care of the bridge, chances are they’re not going to grow up to be the kids who are going to spray paint it,” she said. “And part of Black Belts Don’t Quit is teaching kids how to build that community and how to jump in and give back.”
After the first coat of white paint on a drizzly Tuesday, the group finished up the effort Wednesday, May 29, with a second coat and paint on the sidewalk to cover up the last of the graffiti.
As of Thursday evening, new graffiti had already appeared on the bridge.
THERESA BOURKE may be reached at theresa.bourke@brainerddispatch.com or 218-855-5860. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DispatchTheresa.
Theresa Bourke started working at the Dispatch in July 2018, covering Brainerd city government and area education, including Brainerd Public Schools and Central Lakes College.
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