ABBEVILLE, La. — "I'm a Christian and my heart goes out to God's kingdom you know? For someone to vandalize it like that," says Abbeville resident Joey Reed. Reed, like many others, was shocked when he was on social media recently and saw pictures of satanic symbols spray painted on statues outside of St. Therese's Catholic Church. He says he knew something had to be done.
"I just wanted to clean it up." That's exactly what he did, not wanting anything in return.
"I'm paying my crew, I paid for the soaps. I just wanted to give back, I try to give back to my community as much as possible," he explains. Cleaning the statues was not easy - most of them are made out of marble, which is an extremely porous material. The spray paint had soaked into the stone. Reed had to make multiple trips with his team to apply a special soap and gently wash the stains away.
"I got most of it off. We've got maybe one or two more applications to go," adds Reed, who says the cost of professional cleaning and restoration of the statues would have been nearly a thousand dollars.
He says he is just thankful to help the church heal and move on.
"Keep your faith up, this is something that happens every so often, but just keep your faith up."
