By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – The Port Angeles High School Band Boosters Club is working harder than ever to raise scholarship funds for students since it was revealed during a routine audit that someone within the organization had embezzled nearly $14,000.
Former Club Treasurer Melanie Register of Port Angeles was arrested last November after it was discovered that 30 unauthorized cash withdrawals totaling $13,800 had been made.
Register had served as the Club’s Treasurer during the 2019 school year and had access to the Club’s bank account until October of last year. All of the withdrawals were made between January and September of 2020, and all were traced to Register through bank surveillance video.
We asked Club President Kari Hunsaker if the thefts left the Club’s account empty.
“Pretty close to it. We usually award, well last year, we awarded six thousand dollars in scholarships. And so that’s probably going to be around the same amount, and we have nothing to award at the moment because of that money being gone. That’s what prompted us to start the GoFundMe, because we thought, with Covid, we aren’t able to have our trivia night like we normally do or do any of our regular fundraising. So we’ve got to do something, because we cannot leave our seniors high and dry.”
On November 19, police detectives confronted Register with the evidence and court documents say she took responsibility for the crime, saying she used the money for her own household.
Prosecutor Mark Nichols told KONP Register will appear in court Thursday morning and is expected to plead guilty to Theft in the First Degree before being sentenced. Booster Club administrators say a restitution agreement is expected, but will be slow coming in.
The boosters have set up a GoFundMe account with the goal of raising $6,000 for senior band member scholarships.