Honors domestic violence victims

“This is her headstone,” Richard Borchers says while motioning to a decorated parking meter in Long Island City. “I don’t know where she’s really buried, but at least she’s at peace.”
Borchers has made it his cause to increase awareness of domestic violence while also honoring its victims through decorated parking meters.
While dealing with a substance abuse problem several years ago, Borchers came to Long Island City to stay in a veterans’ residence. He said that he had reached rock bottom and that the one thing he had left were his window washer tools. One day during his stay, he decided to go see what was in the area, saw a tall building and decided he would go back to work.
Borchers was cleaning windows for a local check casher when he dropped some paper towels and noticed how dirty the area was. He got a broom and cleaned out the front.
Now, through his beautification project, he cleans a seven mile area in Long Island City and Sunnyside.
“I think he’s doing a great job,” said Angela Rey, who works in a local dental office. “He’s very dedicated to it.”
Having a friend who was a victim of domestic violence eventually motivated Borchers to expand his project and promote awareness. He said one day when she had been beaten up he went down to the piers and cried, wondering what he could do to help.
Borchers has now been doing this work for about four years. Along with cleaning the area, he creates laminated posters to place on some of the parking meters in honor of domestic violence victims and some deceased police officers.
One such victim who has been memorialized by Borchers is Samantha Guzman, a teenager from the Bronx who was shot and killed on Mother’s Day of 2006 when she came across a robbery in progress. Her case remains unsolved.
“She’s not at rest,” Borchers said. “I’d like to do whatever I can to get it back in the front pages where they can find out who did this violence.”
Borchers has no previous experience as an artist. However, he said that working at the Chelsea Art Building and seeing plenty of art rubbed off on him.
“I make this my own studio,” he said of his work in Long Island City. “I clean it. This is really like a cemetery now. Their memories will always be here.”
About three years ago, Borchers created the Sky Blue Foundation, which he is working on getting legal status for. Right now, the work is made possible through his two businesses, a window cleaning company and Rosario Building Maintenance.
“I can’t do it all because there’re too many victims,” Borchers said. “If I could, I would. I wish I could.”
To find out more about Borchers’ work and his Sky Blue Foundation, call 646-925-3717.