PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — The search is on for benches that are missing in Treasure Island.
Hurricane Helene washed many public benches away, but those benches are sentimental for many.
"What everybody liked to do was watch the sunset, sit on their family’s bench, and remember whoever passed away," said Richard Harris, who leads the group searching for missing benches.
For some people on Treasure Island, a bench is more than just a place to sit.
"Well, it means a lot to a lot of people, you know, it's a sentimental piece of history and piece of the person that you love," said Marjorie Sherwin, whose bench was washed away during the storm.
Many of these memorial benches are now missing.
"We think they are on an island somewhere or up in a mangrove swamp or something like that, so we are going to make the effort over the next few months to find the last eleven," said Harris.
Hurricane Helene’s storm surge carried several memorial benches away from their original spots, and now the hunt is on.
“A young lady, who I didn’t get her name, she was out walking her dog, and she says there's a bench down in the water off the seawall. What do I do with it?" said Harris.
Richard Harris is leading the effort to find the benches.
"Well, they are ending up at people’s houses. I mean, for instance, I went out on the boat, and we were just cruising down blind pass and I go, 'Well, there's Marjory Sherwin’s bench,' and it was sitting on a dock across the pass, and a little bit north from her house," said Harris.
Marjorie Sherwin was one of the first to get her bench back after it washed away.
"The current was so swift, it got pushed out into the water, across the way, onto somebody’s dock," said Sherwin.
Her bench honors her wife, Rose, who died three years ago.
"Loving, compassionate, intelligent, beautiful," said Sherwin.
Harris helped return the bench to Sherwin, and it now sits in her backyard.
"She loves this place, and she loves to fish as you look at the bench, there's fishing stuff on it. So it’s very sentimental," she said.
Harris said his search group has already found 78 benches, and there are eleven more to locate.
Sherwin hopes everyone gets to see their cherished memorials again.
"I hope you find them, keep looking. If not, get another one," said Sherwin.
"He was just a very outstanding person."
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