Columbia was rocked Saturday night when protests turned violent. Images of police cars burning, stores being looted and blown out windows will be forever in the memories of those who watched in horror the newscasts.
But Sunday and Monday hundreds of citizens showed up to scrub graffiti off the walls, clean up glass and help restore our city to it's former glory.
And it wasn't just here.
In Philadelphia, journalist Christie Ileto spotted an “army of volunteers” tackling City Center and Rittenhouse. A twitter user from grand Rapids, Michigan,postedthat her “heart is lifted” after seeing hundreds of people downtown cleaning up the city. And in Buffalo, New York, volunteers got to work on the mess “just minutes after the curfew ended,” according to reporter Christy Kern.
Cities including Ferguson, Missouri, Seattle, Scottsdale, Arizona, and Atlanta all had people coming out to pitch in and clean up. The group effort is showing the best of the communities and it’s helping people to start healing, like Seattle Police Department Chief Carmen Best, who says she’s “totally inspired” by the community coming together to tackle the damage and destruction.