Sunday, May 31, 2009

A-Team and Timberwilde Students Paint and Have Fun...

On Saturday, members of the Great Northwest A-Team, a volunteer group responsible for many of the projects that help keep the area looking nice, along with students from Mr. Shawn Vidal's Gifted and Talented program at Timberwilde Elementary School, donned reflective safety vests and took to the bridges, fences and other tagged surfaces in The Great Northwest, to give a fresh new coat of paint.Several dozen students, parents and A-Team volunteers met at the school, mixed buckets of paint, donated by the City of San Antonio Graffiti Task Force and the office of outgoing District 6 Council Member Delicia Herrera and her staff. Incoming District 6 member Ray Lopez stopped by to make sure the efforts Councilwoman Herrera started will continue.Mike Yager, head of the A-Team, said that "When you get a group of good kids like this, the work goes by fast and everyone has fun." And thanks to the great weather on Saturday, it wasn't oppressively hot, but just in case, Andrew Solano from District 6 delivered cases of water to the busy painters to make sure everyone stayed hydrated.Splitting into several groups, the volunteers, young and old covered areas in Ridge Creek, Silver Creek, Timberwilde and areas near the GNW Library.There is no doubt that the tagging of fences and bridges and utility boxes is a problem in our area. A handful of vandals with nothing better to do than destroy the community is really pitiful. But to see the energetic kids from Timberwilde get out in force and demonstrate what real community service is all about is certainly heartwarming.When the painting was done, the group headed back to Timberwilde where volunteers enjoyed hot dogs and refreshments.

Would you like to get involved with projects like this? You don't need to have any special skills, just a willingness to come out and meet your neighbors, do some easy labor for as little as half an hour if that is all the time you have, and appreciate your community beyond the confines of your front door. Learn more about the A-Team here.
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 31, 2009 at 9:47 AM

    Hi Dave,

    Nice article. I like the fact that even fences were being painted -- and not just in patches---looks like they were uniformly painting the whole fence.

    Thanks
    Tony
    Braun Station West

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  2. DaveMay 31, 2009 at 10:01 AM

    Thanks, Tony. Yes, we have had a goal for a long time to paint the entire fences, not just patches over the tagging, but there simply has not been the manpower or the paint. We have been pimping the city for as much paint as we can get, and events like the one yesterday with the students give us the manpower needed to knock out big stretches.

    And, when they tag again (and they will) we can just cover the area to make it match.

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  3. MaureenMay 31, 2009 at 12:00 PM

    I drove out the front way this morning to see if they had tagged those fences again, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had not. Victory shall be ours! Hey, one night with no tagging IS a victory.

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  4. ppiamJune 1, 2009 at 7:30 PM

    Dave, We were house hunting (still) :) in SiverCreek over the weekend & I was back over there today - things look great! Thanks to all of you who helped! I look forward to joining you soon. I think we'll be living in SC by July!

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  5. DaveJune 2, 2009 at 4:45 PM

    I think we'll be living in SC by July!
    Paige, Glad to see you have made the decision to move into SC. You'll find that in spite of some of the occasional eyesore caused by a few jerks, we have a very welcome and enjoyable community. Welcome!

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