A picture says a thousand words, some say, but a picture with a caption in Monday’s paper tells a larger story about two groups of people in the community: those doing the right thing and others, well, not so much.

A group of volunteers on Saturday took part in a cleanup at Moraine State Park. Specifically, a dozen volunteers worked with park staff to apply paint remover and clean supports covered in graffiti at the Route 528 bridge.

Mike Shaffer, the park’s environmental educator, said the park has been hit with more graffiti than usual over the past year.

Now, we know some among us, perhaps, got a little bored with all of the social distancing and lack of activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, taking part in activity that damages the community and is costly to clean up is obviously not the answer.

The people who took it upon themselves to clean up after others’ intentional messes this past weekend should be commended. Those who caused the mess should be ashamed of themselves.

Resources in many municipalities across the county have been stretched a little thin in recent months because of the pandemic. Therefore, having to clean up graffiti becomes even more of a hindrance.

Spraying graffiti on walls is bad for your community in a number of ways. It emits toxic fumes into the air — for example, aerosol sprays release compounds that can be hazardous for those with asthma — that are bad for the environment.

On top of that, graffiti removal can be expensive, it can drive away business and visitors to a neighborhood and can lower property values.

It’s distressing to learn that local parks were hit harder with graffiti during the pandemic. While some people — nurses and other essential employees — were putting themselves on the frontline, others clearly had no better use of their time than to deface public property.

Moraine State Park and the county’s other well-utilized outdoor spaces are jewels for the community. We’re glad that community-minded people were available to take part in the cleanup this past weekend. It’s a shame they had to.

— NCD