The owner of a Guelph restoration business says he will clean the roof of a church recently marred by racist graffiti at no charge.
Paul Schmidt, who owns WinMar franchises in Guelph and Orangeville, said he made the offer to the pastor of the Seventh-Day Adventist Chruch in Guelph earlier this week.
The church roof was defaced just over a week ago with graffiti including the words ‘I hate N—‘.
“What bothered me, is it’s a congregation of 40 — so money is tight. There’s no way they could afford (the cleanup). The funds that they take in are not to clean up (graffiti),” said Schmidt by phone Saturday.
Schmidt said he was surprised when he was alerted to the situation through local media reports.
“I can't believe it. Guelph? Really? That’s our town,” he said.
What bothered him most, said Schmidt, is the money taken in by the congregation of 40 people can be put to better use than cleaning up graffiti.
Schmidt said he has the ability to clean the racist graffiti and wanted to do something to help.
“Civic leaders wrote letters and the police department is looking for the perpetrators and guys like me can do our part too,” said Schmidt.
He left his card and a note at the Seventh-Day Adventist Chruch earlier this week and Pastor Selburn Fray phoned him the next day to accept the offer.
Schmidt did not contact media directly about the offer, it was mentioned by Fray during a service and solidarity action held Saturday morning.
The work is expected to be completed next week, said Schmidt.
“Then the congregation can move on,” he said.
