DUMMERSTON — The Brattleboro Area Interfaith Clergy Association and its partners took a hot afternoon to clean swastikas spray-painted on rocks in an abandoned quarry near the West River.
A group of about a dozen people representing Windham County's interfaith community did the work last Friday, including the Rev. Lise Sparrow, pastor of Guilford Community Church, the Rev. Phillip Wilson of St. Michael's Episcopal Church, the Rev. Cheryl Meachen and her son, Joshua, of First United Methodist Church, the Rev. Barbro Hansson of All Souls Church, and the Rev. Peggy Yingst of Trinity Lutheran Church.
Others helping out included the Rev. Susanna Griefen of Dummerston Congregational Church, the Rev. Emily Heath of the West Dover and Wilmington Congregational Churches and Rev. Sandy Daly of Newfane Congregational Church. Also assisting were Frank Sopper of Habitat for Humanity and Curtiss Reed Jr. of the Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity.
The quarry is located about a mile south of the West Dummerston Covered Bridge, the site of a similar incident of racist and anti-semitic graffiti last month. Both cases are under investigation by the Vermont State Police.
Clergy association members decided at their monthly meeting a few days earlier to take on the project to rid the quarry of hate symbols. Rev. Griefen, the new chair of the association, contacted Rescue Inc. after she realized that some of the swastikas were high on the quarry wall.
Griefen also contacted The Nature Conservancy, the owners of the quarry and the land around it, for permission to do the cleaning. Several hours before the work crew arrived, Rev. Griefen poured eco-friendly solvent to soak the marked rocks, allowing the swastikas to fade so that scrubbing off the spray paint would be easier.
Brian Richardson, assistant chief of Rescue Inc., brought a generator and an extension cord to power a grinder with sanding blades to remove the spray paint along the cliff.
“It breaks my heart that people would do this, but I am so proud of being a helping hand for this cleanup” said Hansson.
“I feel so grateful that so many people came to help,” said Griefen.
In addition to taking direct action to remove the graffiti, the interfaith group, together with the Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity, said it would sponsor a series of public announcements about the incidents.
The members also agreed to approach the subjects of hatred and bigotry in their sermons in the coming weeks.
“It's important for the clergy to stand together and represent our community,” said Heath.