Windows painted on Hillsborough Street businesses memorializing 9/11 signified student support of the 10-year anniversary of the east coast airplane-driven destruction.
The Hillsborough Street Community Service Corporation requested 25 students or student organizations to participate in painting. Those who did the best job were eligible to receive prizes – the top prize was a 40-inch flat screen TV donated by HSCSC .
Students have been painting all week. They began on Tuesday, and ended on Sunday morning.
N.C . State and Meredith College students participated. There were so many applicants that organizers were scrambling to find further businesses to accommodate all of those interested.
About 40 businesses agreed to have their window fronts painted, according to Jeff Murison , HSCSC executive director.
“The response from the students was so overwhelming that we had to call around and get some additional businesses to participate,” Murison said.
Blaine Lautner , a sophomore in history, sent Technician an email titled “Hillsborough Street store’s disrespect of 9/11 paintings.” He complained of business owners censoring paintings in favor of keeping window signage visible.
Lautner is currently a member of Students for Conceal to Carry.
“Like many other clubs on campus we signed up to paint a window on Hillsborough Street in remembrance of September 11th, 2001. Upon beginning to paint the window at Freshberry , we were asked to make an attempt to avoid the light up ‘SMOOTHIES’ sign hanging behind the window,” Lautner said in the email. “We let them know that we would see what we could do, but obviously painting something large enough to show reverence would make avoiding the sign tough to do, since it was hanging directly in the middle of the window.”
Lautner and his group decided to paint an American flag over the entire window and the sign.
“This did cover the sign, but we saw no issue with this considering the flag shows patriotism and respect for those who perished in that terrorist attack, and it would only be there for a short amount of time. Upon passing by Freshberry on my way from the library, today, I saw that they had scraped out a large rectangle in the middle of the flag in order to allow their sign to be seen,” Lautner said.
HSCSC will erase all window paintings next week after they have been judged, according to Murison . Lautner did not want to put Freshberry in the crosshairs , but he said they should put national pride ahead of a few days of a covered-up “SMOOTHIES” sign.
“While I acknowledge the fact that the store is their private property, I see no reason for a store to scrape out a large part of the American flag because their sign will be covered for three days. I take personal offense to this disrespect against our way of showing respect for the people that perished in that dreadful attack, and those who are continuing to fight, including members of my own family,” Lautner said in the email.
Murison said one of the ground rules for painting windows was first talking with business owners, which, according to Lautner , he and his group abided by.
“We encourage the students to talk to the merchants and make sure that they check with the merchant about what part of the window they can use,” Murison said. “to make sure that they’re not covering up the ‘open’ sign or some other important part of their business.”
HSCSC routinely works with students and owners alike to ensure both sides are satisfied.
“That’s a normal part of our coaching to the students and the merchants when they do something like this,” Murison said.
Murison said he thanked student government leaders for “putting in the legwork” when it came to organizing the Hillsborough Street cover-up.
“They worked around the clock for the last week to make this happen. It’s their leadership that allowed this part of today’s program,” Murison said.
