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March 28, 2024

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Youth pitch in to remove graffiti along U.S. 95

Graffiti clean up

Kyle B. Hansen

Ashlee Coate, right, and Chloe Jones, both 15, clean up graffiti Saturday morning near U.S. 95 and Charleston Boulevard along with other participants of a student ministry at the Crossings Christian Church.

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Students from the youth program at the Crossing Christian Church paint over graffiti Saturday near U.S. 95 and Charleston Boulevard.

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About 30 local youth were up early on Saturday morning when county officials spotted them painting on walls in the eastern valley.

But the youngsters weren’t in trouble. Clark County officials on Tuesday declared March Graffiti-Free Nevada Month, and two groups of students were giving up their morning to help cover markings on walls along a half-mile stretch of U.S. 95 between Wyoming Avenue and Charleston Boulevard.

“I think it’s just cool to be able to help other people and be involved in the community,” said 17-year-old Kaden Fabbi, a junior at Sierra Vista High School.

About a dozen of the volunteers were Boy Scouts, while the rest were from a youth group at the Crossing Christian Church, near Buffalo Drive and Windmill Lane, across the valley from the cleanup area.

Before starting the project, Student Ministry Pastor Nate Johnson used the work as a metaphor to God’s love, but as work concluded, Johnson pointed out the project also offered some immediate gratification.

“You put sweat and hours into it and then step back and you can see what you just did,” he said.

Many of the participants in the church group do service projects once a month and are required to do some of the work as preparation for a spring break trip to Mexico to help build a house.

The students said they like being able to come back and see the result of their work in their own community.

“It’s cool to drive by and see a wall we cleaned,” Fabbi said, but seeing it tagged again is “disappointing.”

County Commission Chairwoman Susan Brager, who worked along with the youth, said the experience is what is good for them.

“We hope when we see the youth out here that it will help them go on to become responsible adults,” she said.

It also helps get them more connected to the community and helps prevent further destruction, she said. “They become good ambassadors.”

The county was glad to have the help.

“We try to use volunteers to extend our personnel,” said Cindy Lucas, a code enforcement supervisor.

The county’s graffiti cleanup team has one part-time and five full-time employees who spread out their work to cover the entire county six days a week.

“I don’t think we could do as good a job if we didn’t have the volunteers,” Lucas said.

Brager added, “This is a department that’s never idle.”

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