Josh Higgins and friends from Allied Climbers of San Diego were honored Wednesday night by the Santee City Council for their volunteer work cleaning decades of graffiti from boulders across from West Hills High School.
He organized nearly 100 volunteers for the graffiti cleaning in February. Higgins describes the area:
"The land has been climbed on for decades, and is also a place the people mountain bike, paint ball, and trail run. It is directly across the road and up the hill from West Hills Park. It is covered in granite boulders, and has been a location for a type of climbing called bouldering. The boulder field across from West Hills is my favorite place to climb in Santee. At least one of the boulders that we completely cleaned, I've never seen without paint in the 13 years I've been going out there."
A plaque given to Higgins describes the clean up as "an extraordinary example of community service, teamwork and caring for the environment, returning the rocks to their natural state for all to enjoy."
Unfortunately, graffiti is back on some of the rocks that were cleaned. Higgins asks that the community call the police if they see taggers in action.
See video of the group cleaning graffiti from boulders in Santee that they use to climb
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