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Deanna Hormann enjoys taking part in her neighborhood

Deanna Hormann was nominated as a Good Neighbor for Spokane Valley. At Central Valley SCOPE, she stands with Goldie, her grandson's golden retriever, and Kitty, her Springer Spaniel, specially trained to work with Mountain West Search and Rescue. (Steve Christilaw / The Spokesman-Review)
Steve Christliaw The Spokesman-Review
Deanna Hormann was nominated as a Good Neighbor for Spokane Valley. At Central Valley SCOPE, she stands with Goldie, her grandson's golden retriever, and Kitty, her Springer Spaniel, specially trained to work with Mountain West Search and Rescue. (Steve Christilaw / The Spokesman-Review)

As good neighbors go, Deanna Hormann is definitely not the retiring sort.

“Although Deanna is retired, she is far from being the little old lady that sits and watches the world pass her by,” her neighbor, Sharon Howard, wrote last year.

Hormann stays busy, and much of what she does is aimed at making her community safer. She was one of the founding members of Central Valley SCOPE and remains active, helping to organize Neighborhood Watch groups throughout the area.

“I’ve been fortunate to be able to work with a group of people who are like me,” she said. “These are people who are interested in the community. Our focus is on the community and not on ourselves. When you talk about satisfaction, that’s what I get out of doing this, personally.”

The primary mission of the Sheriff’s Community Oriented Policing Effort is to provide a safe living environment for the community. The Neighborhood Watch program teaches communities that the best and most cost-effective way to prevent crime in their own neighborhood is to watch out for one another.

“It’s exciting,” she said. “When you’re focusing on the community, you can take a large group of people and really have a high-energy movement toward solving problems. One of the things I love about working with SCOPE is that it’s about a team. It’s about ‘we,’ not ‘me.’

“We’ve watched entire neighborhoods solve their own problems. Sometimes you only have to meet with them once and show them how to go about it. You just have to watch out for one another. It starts by going out and meeting your neighbors.”

With many volunteer programs, the group’s forward momentum is only as strong as its most enthusiastic leaders. When those leaders move on to other projects, the program falters. Hormann said she didn’t want to see that happen with Central Valley SCOPE.

“I do have, well, we’ll call it ‘an assertive personality,’ ” she joked. “I didn’t want this to go the way of some of the other volunteer programs I’d been involved with. I went to Avista Corp. and to Hewlett-Packard because I’d heard that they have advanced management practices, and we got help from them. And I think it worked.”

Hormann stays busy in her neighborhood in other ways as well. For example, she’s a regular at the YMCA skateboard park.

“I take my grandkids down there all the time, she laughed. “Do I skate? No. But I’ve gotten very good at watching.”

One of her passions is Kitty, her 7-year-old Springer spaniel she’s trained to work with Mountain West Search and Rescue.

“I’m not able to work her – my daughter actually works her in the field – but I’ve trained her to work with search and rescue,” she said. “She’s been great. She tracked and found a missing Alzheimer’s patient.”