PAPER TRAILS: Cathedral fire check hits chord

Sean Clancy, Paper Trails columnist
Sean Clancy, Paper Trails columnist

MERCI BEAUCOUP

Like so many others on April 15, Audrey Burtrum-Stanley of North Little Rock was glued to television images from Paris of Notre Dame Cathedral on fire.

She watched, dumbfounded, as the 850-year-old cathedral's roof and spire were being eaten by flames.

Then she grabbed her checkbook.

She knew it was too soon for any group to have organized fundraising efforts to rebuild the church, but that didn't matter.

"It takes money to make money," Burtrum-Stanley said last week. "I realized that if I wanted to be a part of helping put that back together, I needed to do it immediately."

So she wrote a check -- don't ask for how much, because she's not saying -- and mailed it with a letter explaining what it was for to French President Emmanuel Macron.

"Who better to send it to?" she asks.

About a month later, Macron wrote back.

"I expected some kind of recognition of the fact that they had received it, but I didn't expect to get anything from him."

After getting the two-page, typed letter translated, Burtrum-Stanley says the president was "very appreciative."

She has never been to Notre Dame, by the way, but the grand church holds a special place in her heart.

"Just because I have not ever personally been there doesn't mean that I don't love it. ... It's one of the most powerful buildings -- the design, the age, the reverence that people have for it, it's just a glorious location."

Some of France's richest families and companies quickly pledged hundreds of millions to rebuild the cathedral, but so far none have contributed, according to a June 15 Associated Press report. Funding is coming from smaller donors like Burtrum-Stanley.

She says she was just doing what she could to help get the cathedral rebuilt.

"If you want to be a tiny part of saving something for mankind, this is the kind of action that you take," she says.

Will she visit when the restoration is complete?

"Not necessarily. I'm content to look at photographs. You don't have to breathe all of the air in the world to want pure air for everyone."

STUMPED

There they sit, at the junction of Burlingame and Kanis roads near Ferndale, behind a wire fence and a stern "Posted No Trespassing Keep Out" sign.

Some appear to be happy, while others look angry. Most are accessorized with American flags, bandannas and paper Uncle Sam hats. It's like they're waiting for a Fourth of July parade, or greeting passing motorists.

They are a bunch of stumps, weathered and gray, that some creative person has painted googly eyes on and dressed in red, white and blue finery.

email: sclancy@arkansasonline.com

SundayMonday on 06/23/2019

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