SEQUIM –– Thieves and vandals destroyed a patriotic display that funds scholarships when they took four flags and damaged flagpoles at a cluster placed at the northeast corner of Woodcock Road and Sequim-Dungeness Way.
The four flags were posted as part of the Sequim Sunrise Rotary’s annual holiday fundraiser and found missing last Friday, which was Independence Day.
The club put out 428 U.S. flags for this year’s Fourth of July display.
“That’s the first time we’ve had so many taken. I think we’ve lost a total of less than six in five years,” said club member Jim Pickett.
The club annually places flags at homes of Dungeness Valley residents who have subscribed to receive one on Independence Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Veterans Day.
Subscribers pay $40 each year to have flags placed outside their homes. Proceeds fund the club’s scholarship and community service programs.
Pickett said members will cover the cost of replacment so it does not come out of the community fund.
Anyone who finds the flags is asked to return them to the Sequim Police Department at 609 W. Washington St.
