With a flick of their paintbrush and a blast of their pressure washer, a few young men in St. John's are the newest recruits in the battle against vandalism.
Fifteen-year-old Jack Boland, 18-year-old Jacob Sheppard and 19-year-old Brandon Ivey call themselves the Scrub Squad — a new business in the St. John's area that's helping fill a big need.
"We started seeing more and more news articles, people complaining on social media, everything like that," Boland said. "We thought it was a great idea. It would benefit the community if we actually started something like this."
The idea was born in March, and after a few weeks of seeking out the best equipment and getting their businesses insured, the young men launched the business in June.
Since then, they’ve been honing their new craft.
“We’ve done a lot of jobs over the summer and this fall, we’ve learned that every single job is different no matter what you do. You always need to think on your feet,” Boland said.
“Surface difference, whether the paint wasn’t primed or anything, like very, very nitty gritty things that can affect the complete outcome of the job.”
In just a few months, they’ve managed to win over some pretty big clients in St. John’s, including a shopping mall, a furniture store and some downtown businesses.
The Newfoundland Embassy, a bar in downtown St. John’s, wrote on Facebook that meeting the young men “really warmed our hearts.”
“It's really cool to see such young entrepreneurs working hard,” the bar said in the post. “The Scrub Squad were very professional, quick & incredibly easy to work with.”
Vandalism and graffiti have been vexing police and business owners in St. John’s for much of the year. A few weeks ago, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, the city’s police force, launched a dedicated tip line to try to track down a few notorious offenders.
For the trio, there’s some big satisfaction in cleaning up their city.
“Throw the chemical on, agitate it, blast it away and you have a clean surface,” Boland said. “It’s pleasing to look at.”
“It’s almost like it was like a Crayola washable marker,” Sheppard added.
But the boys are also quickly learning about all the other tasks that go into running a business — insurance, advertising and customer service.
“There’s a lot of white-collar activities that you have to do that are part of business in the background, before you even get any jobs,” Sheppard said.
Their latest challenge? Balancing their growing business with Boland’s homework.
“There's 24 hours in a day, Right?” Boland said. “So if six are in school, I still have a lot in a day, you know that I mean? I can go to bed, I wake up before I go to school, do emails, make Facebook posts, everything like that.”
