The Peanuts gang is back together in Oak Bay, thanks to the efforts of a local teacher, her husband and students.
The figures of Charlie Brown, his sister Sally and Snoopy were stolen in late November from a display in the municipality’s Entrance Park, at the corner of Oak Bay Avenue and Foul Bay Road.
The trio was part of a handmade set donated by a local family that has been a seasonal favourite in Oak Bay for more than 10 years.
Teacher Whitney Davis passed the park every day and decided to do what she could to fix things “in the spirit of the holidays.”
“I saw the poor characters who were lonely and who had had their friends taken,” she said.
“Time kept going by and I kept seeing it.”
Davis reasoned that it would be easy to get her carpenter husband to cut out some characters, and she would use her artistic skills for the rest.
There were other considerations, such as having four children and a full-time teaching job, but she was undaunted.
“It was a complete, collaborative, last-minute effort,” she said.
When she drew the characters on paper at school in the last days of classes before the holiday break, students approached and asked if they could paint them.
Davis took the characters home, and on Christmas Day, her husband cut matching pieces out of plywood. They wrapped in them in thick plastic and fashioned stakes to stick them in the ground.
One of the stakes broke going in, but her family was undeterred, she said.
The whole thing was “a work in progress” and she wasn’t sure if it would really happen, Davis said.
She said the best part is that the woman who made the original figures with her father and best friend took a picture of the reunited display and posted it on social media, expressing her gratitude.
“I responded to her via private message and said I’m so glad that you noticed that and you understand the sentiment,” Davis said.
She said she wants people to be joyful “at the reunion of the characters.”
“These characters around their sad little tree are all reunited and happy.”
Davis said the students who helped can be proud of themselves.
