PORT ANGELES — Activities during the past two weeks have raised more than $1,000 for a memorial service to honor Vanna K. Francis, a Lower Elwha Klallam teenager who drowned last March 18.
“Our hands go up” — a Klallam gesture of respect — to businesses who donated cash and gift certificates to the memorial fund and to a separate scholarship fund, said Pat John, a friend of the Francis family.
The memorial service for Francis will start at 10 a.m. March 29 in the Lower Elwha Tribal Center, 2851 Lower Elwha Road, west of Port Angeles. It is open to the public.
Francis and Ronnie Scroggins died when the car in which they and five other young people were riding plunged off the end of Lower Elwha Road into the rain-swollen Elwha River.
The car’s driver, Sela Anne Kalama, was sentenced to 26 months in federal prison March 7 by U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle.She had pleaded guilty to two counts of involuntary manslaughter Dec. 11.
Federal authorities had jurisdiction over the case because the deaths happened on a Native American reservation and involved members of more than one tribe.
Scroggins, 15, was a member of the Makah tribe of Neah Bay. Kalama, 20, is a member of the Quinault tribe of Queets.
Donors of gift certificates and cash, John said, include Sergio’s Hacienda, the Bushwhacker, 7 Cedars Casino, the Golden Gate Chinese Restaurant, Puerto de Angeles, Michael’s Divine Dining, the Port Angeles CrabHouse Restuarant, Downrigger’s, and Drake’s U Bake Pizza.
Also, Alley Cat Boutique, Branded, Northwest Duty Free Stores, Victoria Express, Matay Lunch & Latte’s, and Kindred Spirits Coffee, J&A Associates, Peninsula Daily News and an anonymous person.
Donations can be made at any KeyBank branch to the Vanna K. Francis Memorial Fund or to the separate Vanna K. Francis Scholarship Fund.
For more information on the funds or the memorial service, phone John at 360-457-2051 or 360-460-0372; or Robert and Joni Francis at 360-452-1144 or 360-477-5058.
