ELORA – A community cooking program in Elora will have to start 2025 dealing with a large illegal tag on its building, leaving one of its founders disappointed.
Some time in late December, the volunteer-run Kitchen in the Park (KIPP) Elora building in Bissell Park had a large illegal tag spray painted on the side of it in white paint.
KIPP Elora is a community program centred around cooking at a wood-fired oven at a small red building in the Elora park on the banks of the Grand River. The program is popular for its occasional pizza nights and cinnamon buns during the nearby Elora Farmers’ Market.
“It’s disappointing that the illegal tagging that is occurring over on the wall that’s adjacent … is migrating over because it’s significant over there as well,” said Staci Barron, KIPP Elora co-founder, referencing a nearby walled area in Bissell Park covered in graffiti and tags.
Barron said KIPP Elora surprisingly does not deal with a lot of vandalism but this particular act will be trickier to deal with because the tag was painted on stained wood and it is also winter.
“On cement it’s actually easier to take off, this is a stained wood and now it’s cold and so I think we’re going to see the remnants of it for a while until it is painted,” Barron said. “That’s gross, right? The season we are in is going to work against us and therefore the community will be reminded of this destruction for months.”
Based on the agreement with the township, it will be up to KIPP Elora to take care of it.
Barron encouraged those who are down in Bissell Park to keep an eye out for what’s going on there and what people are doing and to report anything that seems off.
“It’s a beloved asset of our community … and we all need to take care of our sacred spaces in the community,” Barron said. “So when people go down to the park please be mindful of who is there and what people are doing.”
