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SEQUIM — When the Madonna-and-child statue was discovered vanished Saturday, Gloria Knapp’s heart leaped.
“We thought, ‘Oh, good, somebody bought it,'” she said.
The blue and white alabaster figure, one of the more valuable items for sale at the Women of St. Joseph rummage sale, was gone.
But no one had purchased it.
The 12-inch-tall statue, priced at $85, was apparently stolen the day before from the St. Joseph Catholic Church hall.
To add to the injury, two other donated items disappeared: a baby quilt, cream-colored with cross-stitched “Wizard of Oz” characters, and a vintage silk blue baby bonnet.
The rummage sale, whose proceeds go to local nonprofits such as the Dungeness Valley Health & Wellness Clinic, the CareNet Crisis Pregnancy Center and the Sequim Food Bank, has been happening every spring for a couple of decades.
And things have “walked away” before, said Sharon Ross, who with Knapp helps organize the popular event.
But Ross can’t recall a time when such a sacred image was taken.
“That’s what bothered us more than anything: That someone would steal a religious statue,” she said.
“Considering where we are, what it was and why we’re selling it,” added Knapp, “it was a real blow.”
This year’s rummage sale, one of a few events the church has annually to benefit Sequim charities, reaped about $4,000, Ross said.
That’s a little more than 2009, although this time no big-ticket items, such as dining-room sets, were donated.
Most merchandise at the sale is priced very low — clothing for $1 apiece, for example — “so it takes a lot to make that $4,000,” added Ross.
And the sale was “a madhouse,” she said.
People lined up out the door and down Maple Street on Friday morning. A big surge of shoppers came in when the sale started at 9 a.m., and the statue, quilt and bonnet were still on display after that.
Then came smaller surges, and some time between about 10 a.m. and noon, the three items went missing.
A smaller version of the statue was still on the table at the end of the day.
Ross worries that whoever took the alabaster statue will sell it on eBay or at a pawn shop.
But “maybe somebody will recognize it,” said Knapp. She and Ross can only hope, too, that the quilt and baby bonnet will be recovered.
The women emphasized, though, that they harbor no bitterness about the incident.
“We have people who come and say, ‘Keep the change,’ or they donate extra. We do have that, too,” said Knapp.
“We do thank the people who donate things, and who come and buy,” added Ross.
Anyone with information about the Madonna-and-child statue, the “Oz” quilt or the pale-blue vintage baby bonnet is encouraged to phone St. Joseph’s at 360-683-6076 or visit the church at 121 E. Maple St.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
