St. Louis, MO-- A St. Louis high school student with a vision is now beautifying the City of St. Louis one stroke at a time.
He came up with the idea to paint the city's dumpsters months ago, and after a lot of dedication and determination he was finally granted the opportunity.
Jacob Schmidt, who is going to be a senior at Metro High School, says the goal of this project is to brighten up the city by taking something functional and turning it into a work of art. It's an idea he came up with last November.
"I was going out to take out the trash and I realized these things are so necessary are just so ugly but they are everywhere and they are really detrimental to the city's image and if you can paint them beautiful colors and beautiful ideas they could really help bring beauty back into the city," said Schmidt.
With a lot of hard work, focus, and persistence Schmidt was able to turn his idea into reality. He approached the city six months ago asking them to paint alley dumpsters.
The city says they gave him a chance but it didn't work out because the art confused people who put specific trash in specific colored dumpsters.
But Schmidt didn't give up. A few months later he was granted a much bigger canvas: 25 roll off dumpsters the city uses for sweeper routes and construction projects.
Schmidt raised $4,000 to pay for supplies, and now with the help of 30 volunteers he is beautifying the City of St. Louis one stroke and spray at a time.
"I think it's a sign the city is not all a bureaucracy, and it's not all our way we're open to new ideas and suggestions, ya know? It's persistence, and you know he had a good idea and we just had to put it in right canvas," said Todd Waelterman with the St. Louis Streets Department.
Schmidt and his friends will be painting for about six hours a day until school starts in August.
Two dumpsters already rolled out into the streets of St. Louis and you should see more popping up in a neighborhood near you sometime soon.