Citizen Staff/Hank Snyder
Soon after artist Craig Sacra is done putting graffiti on this Christian Life Fellowship Church bus he plans on joining the Coast Guard.
MAYVILLE — Most buses only rate a glance, but this one should be getting stares.
That's because the Christian Life Fellowship Church just purchased a used Mayville school bus, painted it white, and is now adding their own graffiti.
"On one side of the bus I'm painting Axis Infinity and on the other side I'm painting Christian Life Fellowship," said graffiti artist Craig Sacra of Las Vegas.
"Axis Infinity is the name of our youth group," said Amanda Gabel of Mayville who met Sacra in college in Missouri. "The other side is the name of our church."
"Christian Life Fellowship has an active bus ministry," said Amanda's dad and church board member David Gabel. "We use the bus to bring young people in for Wednesday nights worship services and now we've grown so big that we're starting two Wednesday services."
Gabel said the bus usually picks up 25 to 45 kids from as far out as Horicon and Juneau, and they have 110 to 135 kids at the services.
"In addition to that, we just started using the bus on Sunday mornings to pick up youths and hopefully their parents. That plus the bus is used for many trips throughout the state," said Gabel.
And because the bus is on the road so much, Gabel wanted a head turner.
"My wife got the idea of using graffiti," said Gabel. "We saw Craig's work on YouTube and thought, 'what an awesome idea, let's put graffiti on our bus.' I wanted something anyone anywhere could tell who the bus belongs to, and why it's there. Thankfully the board approved it."
Sacra, who hopes to have the graffiti finished within a week, said he's been interested in art since he was 8 and graffiti since he was 12.
"Graffiti started with New York City gangs using it to mark territories. Now it's progressed to an art. Besides it gives me something to do," he said.
To see the bus, visit Christian Life Fellowship Church, 113 N Clark St., Mayville. Call 387-5567.
www.clfmayville.org