AN ADDITION: There will be a banner-signing station at the entrance to the Wal-Mart Supercenter off Kolonels Way in east Port Angeles beginning about 1 p.m. today, according to Leslie Robertson of Revitalize Port Angeles.
PORT ANGELES — A dozen cards of condolence and counting.
Expressions of sympathy for residents of Chattanooga, Tenn., had spilled onto a 12th banner by Saturday morning as members of Revitalize Port Angeles circulated the sheets at locations that included:
■ Olympic Medical Center, 939 Caroline St.
■ Clallam County Family YMCA, 302 S. Francis St.
■ Port Angeles Senior and Community Center, 328 E. Seventh St.
Copies will be available at these places through today, according to Revitalize Port Angeles founder Lesley Robertson.
At the Port Angeles Farmers Market in The Gateway transit center, at least 18 people had signed the message before noon Saturday.
Backers also hoped to take them to sprint boat races Saturday at the Extreme Sports Park.
Robertson said it wasn’t possible to estimate how many people had signed the banners because the signatures varied widely in size.
Some messages were terse; others ran into long sentences of sympathy.
Originally, the group planned to mail the banners to Chattanooga on Friday but decided to widen the signing window “because the response has been so overwhelming,” Robertson said.
“We want to give people every opportunity to sign.”
Delivery Wednesday
City Manager Dan McKeen said Saturday an anonymous donor would provide frequent-flier miles for Robertson to deliver the banners in person to Chattanooga city officials.
Robertson said she hoped to fly to Tennessee on Wednesday
McKeen said he would meet with her Monday to complete details of the trip.
Other private donations “from concerned people who really wanted to see it happen” will pay for Robertson’s accommodations in Chattanooga, she said.
Robertson said the trip would be bittersweet.
“I’m really happy to have the opportunity to take the extra step to show Chattanooga how much we care,” she said, “but I know the community is devastated.”
Five murdered
Chattanooga was where four U.S. Marines and a sailor were murdered July 16 by a gunman who later died in a shootout with police.
Marine Staff Sgt. David Wyatt was buried Friday in Chattanooga in the first funeral for the victims, according to WSMV-TV in Nashville.
Services for Marine Sgt. Carson Holmquist and Lance Cpl. Squire Wells were Saturday in Wisconsin and Georgia, respectively.
A funeral for Marine Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan is scheduled for today in Massachusetts, and services for Navy Petty Officer Randall Smith’s funeral are planned Tuesday in Georgia.
The Tennessee River city and Port Angeles were finalists for last month’s “Best Town Ever” online contest that Chattanooga won, but not before Port Angeles had beaten larger cities that included Santa Barbara, Calif.; Bainbridge Island; Glenwood Springs, Colo.; Flagstaff, Ariz.; and Bar Harbor, Maine,
Revitalize Port Angeles led the effort to have people vote for the Clallam County city that has 19,000 residents compared with Chattanooga’s 170,000. The contest was held by Outside magazine.
When the voting was over, Chattanooga tallied 67,432 votes to Port Angeles’ 62,130 (52 percent to 48 percent), but the weeklong final runoff forged a friendship between the competing communities.
After Facebook postings inquired what Port Angeles could do in Chattanooga’s time of grief, Revitalize Port Angeles members posted the first sympathy banner Tuesday at Port Angeles City Hall.
Since then, copies have appeared at Wednesday’s Concert on the Pier and the Port Angeles Fire Department.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
