By Carleen Wild
Moody County Enterprise
A few dozen people might have been milling around the items up for sale at the Moody County and Flandreau Public Schools surplus auction this past week.
Not everyone stuck around, though, as auctioneer Chuck Sutton started working through the list of items. If you werent in the market for some very specific momentossuch as old heavy desks from the Courthouse, a used ambulance, or other outdated equipmentyou didnt necessarily stay long, let alone bid.
Quite a few local families are grateful, however, that Renae Lahr did.
Lahr happened to notice a box on a table that also housed dozens, if not hundreds, of old trophies and plaques earned by students who attended Flandreau Public Schools. With limited space to display all the generations-old memorabilia, district officials decided to include 15 boxes of trophies and plaques in the auction this year.
One box, on her second or third pass by the table, caught Lahrs eye.
I noticed my nieces plaque was on top, she said.
Tomi Ann Martin died in a car accident in 1993. And then one of my best friends died of cancer in 2000. Their plaques were in there, and my nephew was with me. We saw it and thought, we need to get this box. When Chuck walked up to do the trophies, we told him we wanted the box separately. He looked in it, saw what it was, quickly set it on the ground, and didnt let anyone bid on the box. Instead, he told his team, $2.50 sold.
Lahr took the box home and looked through it further. Inside were a total of 11 memorial plaques of students who had died young. The plaques had been displayed in the main lobby at the school but were taken down during a remodel of the lobby and main office area a few years ago and put with the other plaques.
Superintendent Rick Weber said the plaques were lost in the shuffle of items put in storage for one reason or another. Their appearance at the auction was an honest mistake, he added, saying it never should have happened.
After a Facebook post by Lahr the day of the auction asking for help reconnecting the plaques with the families, she and Weber visited to ensure the plaques were returned to each respective family. They also discussed the best way to remember and honor former students moving forward.
I suggested that maybe we do just one plaque so that there is uniformity and we can add others who have since passed but didnt have anything memorializing them, Lahr said.
Weber plans to raise the issue for discussion at an upcoming School Board meeting.
Meanwhile, people keep offering to reimburse Lahr for what she spent that day, feeling the gesture was priceless.
It was $2.66 with tax, she chuckled from her back patio Sunday night. Im just glad we were able to give them back.
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