PORT ANGELES — Leslie Kidwell Robertson of Revitalize Port Angeles has returned from her visit to Chattanooga, Tenn., tired but elated after her trip.
“It’s so much more than I expected,” Robertson said Sunday.
Robertson traveled to Chattanooga on Wednesday with 20 sympathy and support banners signed by Port Angeles residents and returned Saturday morning.
Four Marines and a Navy sailor were killed July 16 at a Navy and Marine Corps reserve center in Chattanooga by a gunman who later died in a shootout with police.
In the aftermath of the shootings, Robertson and others who led a spirited effort to beat Chattanooga in Outside magazine’s “Best Town Ever” online contest in May turned to a mission to bring peace and sympathy to the larger city.
“We were rivals, but when that shooting happened, we became humans rather than competitors,” Robertson said.
In Chattanooga, she was taken to visit two public memorials to those who were killed and to the gravesites of a Marine and the sailor killed. She also met the father of the slain sailor.
“That moment, hearing him say that [our effort] helps, makes it all worth it,” she said.
She presented the banners to Chattanooga city officials Thursday during an informal gathering where the banners were displayed at Chattanooga City Hall.
Chattanooga city officials said they will frame the banners and display them at the Chattanooga Public Library.
Robertson said the two cities have become something like sister-cities, and she hopes to see more exchanges and for residents to visit each others’ cities.
“If any Chattanoogan wants to come to Port Angeles, we will roll out the red carpet,” she said.
Chattanooga and Port Angeles were finalists for Outside magazine’s “Best Town Ever” online contest — the top two cities of 64 selected to compete.
Chattanooga won in the final showdown, but Port Angeles fans put up a fight.
Port Angeles supporters, led by Revitalize Port Angeles members, gathered more than 62,000 votes.
In the final vote, Chattanooga, gathered 67,432 votes to Port Angeles’ 62,130 (52 percent to
48 percent).
“It really is a city,” Robertson said, but noted that the people of Chattanooga, which has a population of 170,000, feel more like they live in a town.
She said her next step is to take a rest and recover from the last few months’ activities.
Revitalize is really just starting up, she said.
In addition to gathering residents to discuss ways to improve the city, the effort has led to a member becoming a “one-man vandalism task force,” and another group repainting the staircase behind the Conrad Dyar Memorial Fountain.
Members are currently setting their sights on two major projects, Robertson said.
The first, she said, is to make people more aware of the living-wage job opportunities there are in Port Angeles.
“There are more than people realize. We want to help people find them,” she said.
Robertson said the second project is to involve youth in Revitalize goals, but that project will have to wait until school begins in September.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
