The portrait exhibition features plenty of women trailblazers. Thanks to her Girl Scout troop and a page from Reader’s Digest, Dorothy Langsdorf likely is the only one who actually built a trail.
She is among 40 women saluted Friday in a community art project, “Founding Mothers: Portraits of Progress.” Thirty-six paintings done by Vancouver artist Hilarie Couture were unveiled to coincide with Mother’s Day weekend.
The community contributors span 171 years, from Esther Short — who arrived with husband Amos in 1845 — to Nan Henriksen, Clark County’s most recent First Citizen.
Friday’s reception at Boomerang was sponsored by Vancouver’s Downtown Association as part of its First Friday Downtown program.
Each face represents an example of local leadership in a number of different realms: education, politics, social justice and advocacy, philanthropy, community affairs and more. Some checked off more than one box.
Lee Rafferty, executive director of Vancouver’s Downtown Association, said she finds the story of Langsdorf, who died in 2001, particularly appealing.
“Mrs. Langsdorf liked to walk,” Rafferty said. “However, communities of the 1960s were not designed with that in mind.”
While going through a Reader’s Digest one day, Langsdorf found an item about public service grants available through the magazine’s foundation. She applied for a $500 grant and spent the money on shovels, hoses, rakes and wheelbarrows. With a group of Girl Scouts and support from other organizations, she got started on the Discovery Trail.
“She also made her pitch at city council meetings,” said her daughter, Linda Langsdorf Johnson. And she made a lot of phone calls, contacting businesses to get easements for the trail.
“It was a $500 grant. She turned it into a trail system,” Rafferty said. “It’s not a huge pile of money to work with, but she found ways to make this a better community. That’s the part I find so interesting.”
(Sections of the Discovery Trail have since been folded into the Burnt Bridge Creek Trail.)
In a 2001 Columbian story following Langsdorf’s death, a local parks and recreation official called her “the mother of the walking movement in Vancouver.” Kelly Punteney, a longtime trails planner, said: “In 1965, we weren’t even building sidewalks in new subdivisions. She saw the need to be able to walk safely.”
As Langsdorf Johnson said of her mother, “She left her mark.”
Many of the portrait subjects attended the opening reception at Boomerang, a downtown business that multi-tasks as a coffee shop, thrift store, philanthropic resource and art showcase.
After taking a closer look at her portrait, Lisa Gibert said: “It’s fabulous.”
You get the idea that she was also talking about being represented in the project.
“It’s such an honor,” said Gibert, CEO and president of the Clark College Foundation.
Joyce Kilpatrick seconded that thought.
“It’s incredible,” said Kilpatrick, former director of YWCA Clark County. “I’m alongside Mother Joseph.”
If you go
• What: “Founding Mothers: Portraits of Progress”
• Where: May, Boomerang, 808 Main St.; June, Erik Runyan Jewelers, 900 Washington St.; July, LSW Architects, 610 Esther St.; August, Clark College Archer Gallery, 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, in the Penguin Union Building; September through December, Clark County Historical Museum, 1511 Main St.
• When: Hours vary
And above Kilpatrick’s portrait was that of former legislator and community leader Val Ogden.
“She was my mentor,” Kilpatrick said. … And she said Ogden was an inspiration right up to the day she died in 2014.
“I saw her the day before she died,” Kilpatrick said. As she was fading, Ogden had some final words for her friend. Kilpatrick got closer and closer to try to make out Ogden’s words. All she could hear were two words, “Do it.”
“I said ‘yes,’ but I don’t know what I said yes to,” Kilpatrick said.
But based on the accomplishments of all the women in the portraits, it was the right thing to do.
