Memory Jayne
I can think of no
better place for a Valley grandparent to spend quality time with a grandchild
than a visit to the Valley Heritage
Museum. For that matter, any parent
would do well to take their kids there. It is a repository of local history
that provides a visual bridge across the generation gap, showing the youth that
life was much the same in years past. It was just less crowded, less high tech,
and much more down to earth.
While the colorful and creative exhibits can
help draw the generations together, it has the unique capacity of helping the
younger visitors bond to their community. Like all good museums it teaches
history in general but unique to this one is the Valley backdrop.
The museum has
become a dynamic contribution to the Valley, with hundreds of donated items, dozens of volunteers and thousands of
visitors, but only seven years ago it was just an idea inspired by frustration.
"This whole thing started
back when I was working on the 80th Anniversary celebration for the Valley Chamber of
Commerce," said Jayne Singleton recently. "I wanted to put together a
historical display and found it difficult to find anything." She discovered
that there were old pictures and stories
but that it was all spread out .
"The library had a
little, and the paper had some stuff but the there was no one place I could go
to get what I needed and I thought that was sad," she said. "That was when I
started thinking the Valley needed a museum."
"It bothered me
that there was no place in the Valley where you could connect," she said,
adding that she had been raised with an appreciation for family history. "I
know the names of family members born in 1750 and in my dining room I have my
great grandparents' wedding picture."
Believing that
strong connections to the past are a balm to individual as well as community
stability, Jayne began crusading for a Valley museum in 2002. "At first I did
the dog and pony show," she said. " I spoke to the Chamber and the Kiwanas and
all the fraternal organizations and I did displays at things like Valleyfest."
On an act of faith,
she left her public relations job at Metropolitan, waded through a mountain of
paperwork with the IRS and Washington state, obtaining a tax exempt charter for
her dream and went at it full time.
“It was a leap of faith,” she said. “I left the good for the
great.” When the Spokesman did a story
on her quest, things began to come together.
“That story got the
phone ringing,” said Jayne, who moved to Spokane
from California in 1983. “Chuck
King was the first to call and say he wanted to help. He had been collecting
old Valley photos and memorabilia like me.”
As her efforts
gathered support and supporters, the museum became a physical reality in 2004 when
the newly formed Spokane Valley
city council voted unanimously to donate the old Opportunity
Township building to the museum.
“There aren’t too
many historic public buildings left in the Valley,” she said of the 1912
building west of Pines on Sprague. “And for many years this was a community gathering
place and I just knew this was where the museum was meant to be.”
Jayne and a group
volunteers went to work restoring the building’s neglected exterior and putting
together exhibits with a belief that their efforts would benefit the community.
And their efforts have proved a wise investment.
The first year the
museum had 700 visitors and already this year the number is over 3,000, with more
than 33 states being represented on the visitor sign-in ledger. School classes
regularly take field trips and museum buffs driving down Interstate 90 are
often drawn in by the directional signs.
In fact, people
from all over the world are taking advantage of our newly created repository of
local history. “ I had a guy from Ireland
email the other day who was researching his family genealogy,” Jayne said. “He
only knew that his grandfather’s brother had lived in Opportunity
and murdered someone. I looked in the township ledger and found his name and
then went online and found his record at the Walla Walla Penitentiary and
discovered he spent 20 years there for murdering a man in Dishman in 1912 and
turned out to be a life long criminal who reoffended again and again.”
While that episode
might be somewhat morbid and sad, the point is that everyone now has a place to
go in the Valley to learn about their roots
and need not be frustrated in their search because Jayne had a vision
that became her dream job and a local treasure.
“This
experience has been like throwing a stone into a body of water. The Valley is
really a huge body of water and the ripples continue to go out and out,” said
Jayne, who is more passionate and exuberant than ever. “Every day is like
Christmas. You never know who is going to come in and what might be donated.”
