Post Falls VFW closet find reunites artists with long-lost student work

A cleanup at Post Falls VFW Post 3603 uncovered a small piece of local history: two student artworks tucked away in a closet, forgotten since they were entered in VFW contests years ago. Bob Shay, then first vice commander at the post, found the pieces in 2020 and kept after them until he could track down the artists and bring the work back into public view.

One piece belonged to Katrina DeWitt, a Post Falls High graduate from the class of 2007 who has worked as a nurse at Kootenai Health since 2012. The other came from an exchange student from the Netherlands. That entry had never been submitted because the contest required U.S. citizenship. DeWitt’s piece had been handed in late, set aside and forgotten. By the time it resurfaced, she had not seen it in 19 years.

Now both works are part of the Jacklin Arts and Cultural Center’s Art Uplifts exhibit in Post Falls, where the recovered student art sits alongside work from other local artists. The show opened April 16 and runs through May 16 at 405 N. William St. in Post Falls. The opening reception was held from 5 to 7 p.m. on April 16. The exhibit is free and family-friendly.

Art Uplifts is in its fifth year and has become the JACC’s most popular show, built around creativity tied to grief, recovery and resilience. The center says the exhibit honors the memory of Coeur d’Alene artist and musician Jimmy Magnuson, who died May 17, 2021, at age 36. More than 50 artists were shown in the 2025 exhibit, and the call for entries allowed each artist to submit up to two pieces with no submission fee.

Shay’s own background helps explain why the closet find mattered to him. He said he was an artist and cartoonist in high school and before high school, and he treated the forgotten work as more than paperwork or leftovers from an old contest. After the Jacklin show closes, the recovered pieces are expected to go up at the Post Falls American Legion, where Shay serves as aide-de-camp.

What began as a dusty discovery in a veterans hall turned into a public return of two childhood works, a reminder that Kootenai County’s memory often survives in ordinary places until someone takes the time to open the closet door.