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Volunteers remove graffiti from downtown businesses

Posted at 11:31 PM, Jun 01, 2020
and last updated 2020-06-01 23:31:59-04

INDIANAPOLIS – The exact cost of damage to downtown may be in the seven figures, as more than 100 businesses have reported some level of damage caused by vandalism.

Monday morning, a group of volunteers helped clean up parts of downtown.

“Who are we waiting on to clean up our home?” volunteer Adrian Echols said. “That’s like sitting at home, waiting on someone to clean it up. It’s just not going to happen. I’m just going to show a little initiative.”

Downtown Indy, the organization that represents the downtown merchants, says it’s creating a website to organize other volunteering opportunities. It is also collecting funds for repairs not covered by insurance.

“This is going to be a tough one,” DowntownIndy President Sherry Seiwert said. “But I think over time, between now and the end of the year we’ll recover well.”

Downtown Indy said volunteers will not work on state monuments that were damaged. Extra care is necessary because of the limestone.

Anybody who wishes to volunteer or donate should go to DowntownIndy.org.