Sure-footed volunteers will next week scale Munson Mountain to cover up the work of vandals who tried to paint the town’s name red.
Part of the E in the iconic Penticton sign was splashed with red paint, an act that has now provided the catalyst for a larger cleanup of the site.
Andrew Drouin noticed something amiss with the big sign while driving home from Kelowna three weeks ago, and was bewildered after he went up the hill to take a closer look.
“It’s some of the most senseless vandalism kids can do,” he said.
It’s unclear what the culprits were up to. About half of the E is painted red, but none of the other letters appear to have been touched. An empty alcohol container was still perched at the top of the sign on Thursday.
Drouin has organized a volunteer crew of about 10 people through the South Okanagan Trail Alliance to clear up some of the brush around the sign and repaint all of the letters, which are composed of small rocks set into concrete.
“I thought this would be a good opportunity for the trail alliance to jump in and do something good for the community,” he said.
The workers expect the job to take 80 gallons of paint, and that’s where some local realtors come in.
Peter Byrnes, who works for Coldwell Banker Okanagan Realty, learned of the vandalism from Drouin, and upon hearing of the need for supplies, asked his two dozen colleagues for help.
“It was unanimous. Every realtor was in, and every realtor in our office is contributing towards buying paint for this,” he said.
Some of the realtors are also expected to push up their sleeves and roll on some paint to restore the landmark.
“This says Penticton — obviously — but it’s just one of those things that’s really unique to this town,” Byrne said.
“It’s unfortunate that somebody’s decided to do this, but we’re going to make it right.”
