Town tunas grief into fun
Lisa Campbell and her mother Mel Campbell look over the pieces of "Charlie the Tuna" Friday afternoon, June 6, 2008, behind the Charleston, Ore., Rural Fire Protection District station. The stolen wooden figure was found by Coos County Sheriff's deputies earlier in the day and returned to Charleston. Mark Santos and Marvin Terry Jr. were arrested for the theft and have since written a letter and spoke to Mel Campbell in person to apologize. (AP Photo/The World, Lou Sennick) By KVAL Web Staff
CHARLESTON, Ore. - Charlie is dead. Long live Charlie!
A week ago, two men stole a blue, 8-foot wooden statue of a tuna that had stood for two decades at the end of a bridge, welcoming folks to the coastal fishing town of Charleston. The story received media attention, including an update from The Associated Press. Now the life and times of a tuna named Charlie are cause for celebration - and rebirth. Charleston will honor Charlies on Saturday, June. 14, the same weekend Ellen Keeland of Loon Lake plans to create a new Charlie during the Chainsaw Carving Contest in Reedsport. The town of Charleston will celebrate Charlie’s life with a 1/8th km “creep and crawl” led by the Wild Women of Charleston at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 14, followed by his wake. The Charleston Volunteer Fire department will lead the ceremonies while the Wild Women and the Tuna Guys will lead mourners in song. Charlie’s dear friends the Paper Mache fish will make an appearance and 3B’z Nursery will be donating plants and flowers for the wake. Here's what Charlie looked like before he was stolen:
Men fillet town's Charlie the Tuna statue, say they're sorry CHARLESTON, Ore. (AP) - It turns out the fate of Charlie the Tuna of Charleston, Ore., was sorry indeed. The 8-foot Monterey cypress sculpture that used to greet visitors to the coastal fishing town was filleted by two young men who stole it as a prank and then, panicked they would be found out, took chain saws to it. Not that Charlie would have lasted much longer anyway, the town learned, what with the way bugs and rot had hollowed out his innards. The statute stood beside the South Slough Bridge into Charleston until Mark Santos and Marvin Terry Jr. swiped it last month. "We had planned to wait a little while and then leave Charlie in a random place in town where he could be returned unharmed," they said in an apology letter published in The World of Coos Bay. But someone tipped off sheriff's deputies, who started nosing around. Santos and Terry rushed to their hiding place and tried to move Charlie. But the statue wouldn't fit in their truck. "We decided to chop him up so we could move him," they said. "This was not pre-planned." Deputies caught them in the act and charged them with theft and criminal mischief. Mel Campbell of the merchants association had painted Charlie many times over the years - he was in blue with an orange hat, after the StarKist ads' Charlie. Santos has paid her a visit, and Campbell is asking for leniency. "This was just a terrible, dumb, stupid prank that went absolutely wrong," she said. A wake is planned Saturday at the town's visitors center. The Wild Women of Charleston and the Tuna Guys will offer musical moments. The remains are to be burned and buried at the center. Mourners are invited to share stories about Charlie, and tuna recipes.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) |
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