When 70 year-old West Seattle resident Charles Edward Jenks stole the 18-foot, 500-pound totem pole from West Seattle's Rotary Viewpoint Park last Nov. 30, little did he know his bizarre and brazen theft would set into motion a community effort stretching from West Seattle to Keizer, Oregon to restore and rededicate the hand-carved item.

CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE TO SEE MORE PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT

The rededication took place Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. around the freshly painted and debugged pole as a crowd gathered that included the original carver, South Dakotan Native artist Robin Young and over a dozen West Seattle Rotarians.

"It's great to see the community celebrate and the Rotary Club gather around. Just having it back here is like having a piece of West Seattle back in the community.," said Chief Sealth graduate Christopher Williams, acting Parks and Recreation Superintendent.

"This is going to be a meaningful day in more ways than one," said Carol Coram, past president of the West Seattle Rotary, and principal of Arbor Heights Elementary School. We are here to remember Rotarian Ken Wise who recently passed away as well as to see the reeducation on this beautiful sunny day. The totem pole was a personal piece of every member of the club and when it was taken it felt like somebody went into our home and stole something valuable. We're glad we have it back. That's the main thing."

"I was born on the Cheyenne River Indian Agency Reservation in South Dakota, so I'm Cheyenne River Sioux, and Mandan," said Young, 70, now of Federal Way. "It took me the summer of 1975 to carve it, in my front yard. It was put up in '76. It looks great. They did a super job. Mine was not quite as bright. The colors I used were a little bit dimmer. I'm flattered. (The thief) must have thought enough of it to steal it."

Josh Sutton, Rotarian, said, "What's important to our club and to our community is when faced with a challenge like this, what do we make out of it? We could be really angry. We could seek justice having somebody charged. Or we could say there is greater good here too. Back in January we were really feeling down as a club about the whole experience. This really helped us refocus and say we're going to keep our eye on what's important to West Seattle and about this beautiful park."