I am a Greek American and I visit Spetses every year. After falling in love with Spetses in 2001, I even made a documentary film about Bouboulinaand showed it during the Armata festival in 2005 with the help of Philip Demertzis-Bouboulis. I adore the island and look forward to seeing the changes that each year brings. Last year, however, I noticed a disturbing trend in Spetses- graffiti painted on many of the buildings and monuments around the dapia and even some of the statues and hisotrical mansions. I was particularly shocked to see graffiti on the Bouboulina statue and the Altamoura-Boukoura home. This has upset me very much as I believe these artefacts should be respected as important parts of the island's, and indeed, Greece's history. I would like to organize a graffiti clean-up when I visit this August and I am writing to ask if anyone knows of resources, or would like to collaborate on this project. I also plan to speak with the Greek Embassy in the U.S. to ask for help in funding a project to clean up Spetses. I would also love to document this and bring some attention to the problem. There may be some other events that could be scheduled around the topic, such as discussions with the police to talk about prevention, or art days where graffiti artists could paint murals in safe spaces in a kind of "controlled rebellion". Please let me know if you have any thoughts on this matter, if you know of ways I can organize such an endeavor, or if you know of graffiti removal projects that are already happening on Spetses that I could collaborate with. Perhaps there is an eco-group on Spetses that would like to get involved? I would love to get a group of students involved, as I am a university teacher in the U.S. Please let me know your thoughts. Sincerely, April Kalogeropoulos Householder aprilh_2002@yahoo.com