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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Girl Scout member’s project would provide Millwood with ‘Welcome’ sign

Emma Porter, a Girl Scout going for her Gold Award, is raising money to build a sign reading "Welcome to Millwood" at the corner of Argonne Road and Trent Avenue. She is approaching businesses and donors who would like to help and have their names on tiles around the sign. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)
Treva Lind Correspondent

A busy commercial corridor gives few clues to where the entrance to Millwood begins, but a community project led by a Girl Scout will soon mark the spot.

Emma Porter, 18, is coordinating with city officials to place a “Millwood Welcomes You” sign at the northeast corner of Trent Avenue and Argonne Road to earn her Gold Award, the highest achievement in Girl Scouts.

Porter also is working with the Millwood Community Association to widen support and donations for sign materials, including a program through May 1 allowing people to purchase $25 tiles that will be installed on or around the sign. Residents, businesses and groups can have names engraved on the tiles.

“We asked the mayor if Millwood as a city needed an identification letting people know they’re in Millwood,” said Porter, a West Valley High School senior.

“The City Hall is about the only thing that says Millwood,” she said. “We were trying to think of where we could put a sign, and the mayor suggested a sign on the corner in front of Walgreens.”

She talked to Mayor Kevin Freeman after she realized many people who aren’t West Valley residents don’t necessarily know a distinction between Spokane Valley’s boundary and the city of Millwood when northbound on Argonne Road.

“There were even a couple of people in school who didn’t even know it was Millwood; they just thought it was Spokane,” she said.

The city has planned a sign for some time, but the project sat idle without someone taking a lead role, said Tom Richardson, city clerk and planner. Millwood has $25,000 budgeted for a base and site improvements. Overall sign costs are estimated at $30,000, so the tile purchase program will make up the difference.

“The business community in Millwood identified this sign as important, but nothing ever really clicked before now,” Richardson said. “It was still sort of sitting there waiting for a champion to bring it forward. Then Emma and her mom said they would.”

Millwood’s welcome sign will be fairly small, Richardson said, but built with quality materials.

“It speaks of Millwood,” he said. Depending on timing for bids and city council approval, site work could start in May for sign completion by the end of June.

Porter said Spokane Valley’s Quarry Tiles Co. will donate tiles. The sign will have lights for nighttime visibility and go into an area of about 13 feet wide, but not over 5 feet tall, said Vicki Porter, leader of her daughter’s Troop 2436 for 13 years.

“This is part of Millwood history because residents, groups, businesses, churches, anybody can buy a tile and be there forever,” said Vicki Porter, adding that Gold Award-worthy projects must be sustainable and serve the community.

During the 2014-15 membership year, Girl Scouts of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho had only two Spokane County members earn the Gold Award, and nine recipients total in a 30-county region. Recipients are high school age and have completed Bronze and Silver Award projects.

Sarah Betts, the council’s coordinator of awards and training, said the Gold Award recognizes a girl’s leadership, effort and community impact. Only about 5 percent of eligible girls take the rigorous path to earn it.

The top award’s work is more than a service project because it requires organizational, leadership and networking skills, Betts said. Girls typically spend about 80 hours on their projects after completing prerequisites.

Porter earned her Bronze for collecting school supplies for the Hutton Settlement, a children’s home in Spokane Valley.

For Silver, she worked in 2012 to save the Millwood wading pool, at risk of being closed because of needed repairs and lack of city funds. Porter and other troop members coordinated a penny drive, Facebook page, posters and other support toward $10,000 in community donations.

Porter also won a Chase Youth Award for the wading pool project. Additionally, she just learned she’ll receive the council-level Daisy Award this year for community service work.

She began as a Daisy Scout in kindergarten when the troop had 12 to 15 girls. She reached levels of Brownie, Junior, Cadette, Senior and now Ambassador. Porter said she’s the only active remaining Scout in her troop, although a few are still members who don’t go to activities.

Porter also plays the clarinet in the WVHS marching band. During summers, she works as a lifeguard and swim coach at Park Pool, and she has a job this school year at Papa Murphy’s. After graduation, she plans to attend Spokane Community College.

Porter said she feels some pride when she passes by the city’s wading pool and sees kids splashing. “I just think, wow, I did that. It would have been gone, and now so many kids can go.”

“I live in the Millwood area; it’s home.”

Porter said Millwood’s sign will be another visual reminder of community pride. “I hope people will notice they’re in Millwood now and be excited. That’s where you can find the river, the paper mill, several parks.”