CHIMACUM — An anonymous Peninsula Daily News reader has contributed $455 in cash to cover the cost of replacing 13 American flags stolen from the Inn at Port Ludlow just before Veterans Day.
At around 11:30 a.m. on Monday, an unidentified person dropped off a plain white envelope at the Chimacum Elementary School office with the words “Miss Whitney” handwritten on the front, referring to Chimacum High School Principal Whitney Meissner.
Meissner was quoted stating the $455 amount needed to replace the flags in a story on the theft in Monday’s Peninsula Daily News.
The envelope was forwarded to Meissner, who found the cash and a copy of the PDN story inside, but no other identifying information for the donor.
Meissner, who had alerted the public to the theft with a Saturday morning Facebook post, used the social network for a response to the gift.
“No name, no request for recognition, just someone who wanted to do the right thing,” she wrote.
“Thank you — this of all weeks, I think we should be thankful for what we have and for all that is right in the world.”
When she opened the envelope, Meissner first felt gratitude for the gesture followed by surprise that someone would leave an envelope full of cash on a desk.
“I’ve never heard of that happening before,” she said.
The flags are the property of the East Jefferson Rotary Club, and the cost of their replacement endangered the group’s ability to award one of its student scholarships as the money would have come out of the same fund used for scholarships.
Each year, the club places 225 flags in Jefferson County in front of businesses, schools and cemeteries during five weekends each year — Memorial Day, Flag Day, Fourth of July, Memorial Day and Veterans Day.
Soon after the newly purchased flags were placed Nov. 9 at selected locations around Port Ludlow, 13 of them disappeared.
Even before Monday’s donation arrived, the club had received several promises of contributions that were cause for optimism, according to its president, Ned Luce.
“The [PDN] story generated a lot of interest,” Luce said.
“We’ve had several calls from people who want to contribute, to pay for the cost of the flags and the scholarship.”
After learning about the theft by reading the story at the PDN’s website, Seattle TV station KING-5 visited Port Ludlow on Monday and broadcast a report that evening.
Luce said that he’d received a call from someone who “thought he knew” who had taken the flags and was going to work toward their return.
Luce said that he had not informed the Sheriff’s Office of that particular lead.
“There is a feeling that if law enforcement gets involved, then it will go away,” Luce said of the lead.
“So I decided to give this guy a day to get back to me.”
Anyone who has information about the flags’ location or the identity of the person who took them can phone the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office at 360-385-3831.
For more information on how to donate new flags or make cash donations for the scholarship fund, phone Luce at 360-774-0042.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
Reporter Arwyn Rice contributed to this story.
