Nonprofit paints over bridge graffiti

BRAINERD — The bridge at Kiwanis Park is now free of graffiti, thanks to a local nonprofit. Members of Black Belts Don’t Quit, a nonprofit arm of Team Ascension Martial Arts in Brainerd, worked with the city and other community groups to paint over expletives and other graffiti covering the Mississippi River bridge under College Drive. Jaime Rowlette, a member of Sertoma, helps to paint the Kiwanis Park Bridge on Wednesday, May 29, 2024.Tim Speier / Brainerd Dispatch “We drove past it one day, and we saw just how bad it had gotten,” Kendall Haney, a member of Black Belts Don’t Quit, said Tuesday, May 28. “And we were thinking to ourselves that one of the biggest parts of being a black belt, to us, is being able to serve others and serve our community, and we wanted to show what a black belt is by coming out here and painting our bridge.” Last year, we put 15 gallons on. We had to reload and get a little more, and the 15 minutes we were gone, it was already graffitied. Shawn Middagh, street and sewer foreman It’s a project the city would have otherwise undertaken. Street and Sewer Foreman Shawn...