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Thankful for support after mural damage
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Editor, Manteca Bulletin,
As most of you know four of our beautiful murals were severely damaged in the last two weeks. Some simple-minded moron decided to use silver reflective spray paint and paint across our murals. The damage was severe and the most important thing is to remove the spray paint as soon as possible to mitigate damage to the surface and to deter further tagging.

Even though we are all very busy this time of year a number of our members took the time to come and help with the clean up. I want to thank Terri Pasquini, Charleen Carroll, Michelle Zachlod, Jana Kattenhorn and Tom Wilson. A very special thank you goes to David Cunningham who was not a member of the Mural Society but came out and worked for two days because he saw that we needed help. It took lots of hours of work over four days to remove all of the spray paint so that Dave could do the necessary repainting to restore our murals.

A very big thank you goes to Dave Gordon for the beautiful job that he did on restoring our murals. I don’t know what we would do without him.

Remember, these murals belong to all of us. They are public art for the beautification and enjoyment of our community. If you ever see anyone standing in front of one of our murals, don’t hesitate to stop and talk to the person. If they are doing repairs, then they will be happy to chat with you. If they have a can of spray paint in their hands then they are definitely doing damage. Call the police, the newspaper or any member of the mural society that you know. We need to stop this!

Pass the word to anyone you talk to about this that South County Crime Stoppers is offering a $1,000 reward. Let’s do everything we can to catch this destructive person.

We are also very thankful for all of the concern and support that we have received from other communities. We have received calls from as far away as San Diego. We even received a call from a local woman who wanted to make a donation to help with the cost of repairs.

Our goal has always been to use the precious funds that we raise to put more art into the community. Unfortunately, it will cost thousands for protective coatings and cameras but that may be where we have to go after this disaster.

Again, we appreciate all of the concern from our friends in the Mural Society and in town who have come by or called. We ask that any time you see damage on any of the murals do not hesitate to call. The fourth mural went three days before being reported to us because people thought it was part of the damage that we already knew about. I’d much rather be called 20 times than not at all. As I mentioned, the sooner we remove the spray paint, the less damage.

Thank you.

Gayl Wilson
Manteca
Dec. 19, 2009