LEWISTON – Charity Garland drove away from the Lisbon High School graduation at the Armory on Sunday as a new college-bound freshmen – with gifts on the roof of her car.

By the time she realized it, 15 minutes later, any trace of the purple fuzzy slippers, new pjs and $450 tucked inside various graduation cards was gone.

Getting the money back would be nice – very nice – but really, she said, she wants whoever found them to return the notes she never got to read.

“I understand that it’s probably hard to give back $450 found on the street,” Garland said Wednesday. “I would really like to get my cards back. That’s sentimental stuff to me.”

Two of her sisters gave her pajamas and slippers after graduation, in a shirt box.

“I just put (the cards) in the box because it was so hectic. There were so many pictures to be taken,” she said.

Her hands full with flowers and balloons, she asked her younger sister to put the package in the car and, in the commotion, it never made it.

Jaimee Wellington, Garland’s older sister, said she went back immediately after they realized what happened, about 3:45 p.m., and couldn’t find the package. She called police in Lisbon and Lewiston, and she called the Armory – no one had turned anything in.

The money was meant for college.

Garland plans to go to the University of Maine at Farmington to major in elementary education. Even after taking out loans, she’s $1,600 short for this first year’s tuition.

“So this was a big deal for her,” Wellington said. She and Garland are two of five sisters raised by a single mom. “The yearly tuition to Farmington is more than our mother makes in a year,” the sister said.

Garland told her family maybe losing the package, on top of the tuition shortfall, was a sign she shouldn’t go to college, Wellington said. “It really crushed her.”

They were able to cancel a $100 check and $50 JCPenney gift card. The remaining $300 was in cash.

Garland, who’s working at Sam’s sandwich shop in Lisbon Falls this summer to save up, said she’s decided not to let Sunday’s events get in the way of school.

“I’m really, really excited. It’s just stressful, the money part,” she said.

Anyone finding the cards or shirt box can bring them to the Lewiston Police Department, attention Lt. Michael McGonagle.