PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles woman has raised $2,008 to give a Spokane family who felt spurned and threatened during their June 3 visit to Forks with the hope they will return to the North Olympic Peninsula.
While the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office investigation continues into the harassment Shannon Lowe’s family reported suffering then, Ava Readdy has reached out a hand to give them the vacation they could not enjoy.
Signatures wanted
Readdy, a 65-year-old retiree who raised three children in Port Angeles, will collect signatures and well-wishes for a giant poster-greeting message at a table set up from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday at Veterans Memorial Park, 217 S. Lincoln St., in Port Angeles.
It was by pure coincidence that the signing was delayed until Independence Day, but Readdy will take it.
She said the family’s freedom was compromised when they were questioned as to whether or not they were part of a leftist political movement — to which they said they were not — and followed to their campsite, where their exit was blocked by felled trees before they were cleared and law enforcement escorted them to safety, away from Forks.
“It just so happens this is happening on the Fourth, and I think that does speak to what this country is all about, that we do have that freedom, and that freedom was taken away from them, and that really bothered me, and that’s why I started this whole thing,” Readdy, a 20-year resident and former employee-background investigator, said Thursday.
“I’m hoping people who are heading down to the (City) Pier and driving by there will be able to stop by and send their well wishes, and hopefully, this will give them the freedom to come back here and enjoy us and to let them know this is not how we treat our visitors.”
Money to return
Readdy raised the funds through a GoFundMe account at www.gofundme.com/f/please-accept-our-apology-from-port-angeles-wa that she will close Tuesday.
It’s intended to pay for travel expenses for a return trip by Lowe’s family, but there are no strings attached, Readdy said.
“They got pretty much ripped off on their visit here,” she said.
“My idea was to invite them back, because we’re a better community than that.”
The poster by artist Anya Aubertin is intended as an invitation, she added.
“Even though this is Port Angeles, not Forks, this is the Olympic Peninsula, and I think therein lies the reputation,” Readdy said.
“If they never want to look toward the west again, I sort of certainly get that.”
Clallam County Chief Criminal Deputy Brian King was given permission by the family to give Lowe’s Spokane address to Readdy, who said she will mail them a cashier’s check and the poster.
The family travels extensively in the white bus that drew the unfounded suspicions of area residents fearful that Lowe, her partner, her partner’s mother and her daughter were violent protesters.
“They’re pretty much, for lack of a better term, off the grid,” King said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
