Walk of Heroines project expands scope

The Walk of Heroines, a project first envisioned ten years ago to honor women, has accumulated a long list of potential additions, a lot more money to raise and quite a few blank spaces.

According to project coordinator Holly Huillet Locke, Portland State could possibly open the walkway officially in the summer of 2009.

“We don’t have a set date, since we started last spring we had originally hoped [to open] this fall, but we are waiting for when PSU wants us to make that opening,” she said.

The Walk of Heroines has endured many setbacks, particularly in funding, since its conception in 1998, preventing the project from breaking ground until January 2008. Phase one of the project, which includes the physical walkway, some shrubbery, the fountain and the naming wall, is nearly complete.

Work on the first phase is wrapping up, but the second phase includes many additions that are waiting on funding, such as a stage and informational kiosks with computers that provide access to a database of mini-biographies of the women featured in the walk

Portland State and the City of Portland teamed up on the project to recognize, honor and support the women who have shaped the Portland community.

The walkway features stones with inspirational quotes from women like environmentalist and writer Rachel Carson, and Willie Mae Hart, a civil rights activist who worked to secure full citizenship rights for African-Americans in Oregon.

“The project honors women from all walks of life. Politicians, mothers, sisters, teachers, living and deceased, young and old,” Locke said.

The first of a series of naming walls currently holds over 400 names of women honored by donors in the community. The minimum donation of $200 pays for a spot on the naming wall to honor the heroine.

“The wall has no stratification, all the names are woven together, and we did that deliberately,” Locke said.

The donations fund some of the project’s construction costs, go toward Women’s Studies Department’s free lecture series and workshops, and fund scholarships for students pursuing a degree in women’s studies.

Corporations that donate over $25,000 receive donor recognition on a wall at the front of the walkway, separate from the heroines’ wall, Locke explained. Nonprofits who serve women in the community may be recognized on the heroines wall.

According to Locke, some individuals have donated large endowments specifically for returning women students, and women students majoring in math or science.

Many of the donors are women, as are the project leaders and architects, although some men, including the graphic designer, have been very supported and committed to the project.

“Heroine can mean many things to many different people,” Locke said. “And this project honors all sorts of women.”