Camas Officially Dedicates NW Nan Henriksen Way; Honors Former Mayor

Camas, WA — More than 50 community members and friends gathered outside Discovery High School Thursday evening to officially dedicate NW Nan Henriksen Way, which is named after the former Camas Mayor.

Henriksen officially cut the ribbon following two brief speeches by Camas School District Superintendent, Jeff Snell, and by Henriksen herself. The former mayor received the honor for the vision she had more than 30 years ago to have Camas look beyond the industry of the mill. She was instrumental in creating the Camas industrial park that is now home to multiple high-tech firms that attract living wage jobs.

Snell called her a visionary and heralded her tireless efforts to improve Camas during her tenure as mayor, and to this day.

“I just want to thank all of you for coming and celebrating with me,” said Henriksen. “I can’t tell you how much it means to me and I particularly want to thank my family members who were able to make it here. I wish my dad could be here … he would have been so happy to be here, and I wish he could have been up on the sign, too. I also want to thank Jeff Snell and the school district for this amazing honor.”

“You may think that this is a very short street, but it’s the perfect street for me because of all the symbolism involved. I get goosebumps just thinking about it, because this was Sharp Way and led to our very first tenant in our industrial park that was really only a vision until Sharp agreed to locate here and started to make that vision a reality for Camas. I still get goosebumps thinking about that.”

She spoke of the groundbreaking of the Sharp building, which started the industrial park, and the tree she planted with Sharp leaders.

”Now, this is the street to exciting new learning opportunities,” she added. “It’s so great I can’t think of anything I’d like to see more than these schools dedicated to collaboration, cooperation, teamwork, problem solving, creative thinking, and inclusion of all kids. You don’t have to be a super student or super athlete to be a star at these schools. I’m very proud of this school district.”

Following the official dedication, participants headed over to Discovery High School for its official dedication by Snell.

”I think my greatest joy is that I’m still alive to enjoy this,” she said. “Usually groups wait until you die and then they say let’s honor her with a street. You guys all get to celebrate, but I don’t.”