Dazzling spins, impressive lifts and impeccable musicality — as Emanuela “Emme” Porter skates each stroke overflows with emotion and every movement brings music to life. Porter, marketing brand manager for Fairfax County Park Authority Golf, brings her experience as a professional skater to the Park Authority. The senior-level international ice dancer has competed at tournaments across the globe, taking the ice alongside renown Olympic medalists; however, her skating career started much closer to home, at the humble Mount Vernon Rec Center.

Porter’s foray into skating began when she started taking group lessons at Mount Vernon at age seven. A child of an Italian immigrant, she lived in an apartment across the street from the Rec Center. Having a world-class skating program that’s affordable and located so close to home made the sport accessible to Porter and her family. As one of the only ice rinks in Northern Virginia at the time, Mount Vernon was a cornerstone in the skating community, hosting huge events like the Eastern U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Twelve-year-old Emme sat at the top of the bleachers and watched the entire competition. She distinctly remembers the moment when she decided, “That’s going to be me someday.”

With that goal in mind, Porter got serious about skating. “I didn’t want to do anything besides skate. It was where I wanted to spend all of my time,” she says. Under the mentorship of dedicated coaches like Jeddy Bassford, Donna Reed and Shirley Hughes, a veteran skating coach who taught at Mount Vernon Rec Center for more than 40 years, Porter’s skill and passion continued to grow.

Porter worked her first job at front desk of Mount Vernon Rec Center, then went to college and became a National Collegiate medalist for the Boston University figure skating team. After graduating, she wasn’t ready for her skating career to end. She went on to coach at Mount Vernon Rec Center, then returned to competitive skating, where she reached the pinnacle of her skating career as an international dancer at the senior level.

“I remember the first time I was standing on the ice at my senior competition. I was pinching myself until the music started, and that’s when I realized, ‘Oh my God, I did it,’” Porter says. “I was a living example of being the writer of your own story. If you work really hard, you can change the trajectory of your life. It’s such an important lesson that Mount Vernon gave me.”

Porter went on to become the skating director of Mount Vernon Rec Center prior to the facility closing for renovations. As skating director, her job was to be the leader of the skating community. Now with the facility’s reopening, she’s looking forward to just being a member — to coaching again and skating for fun and exercise, and to watch her two kids, both also skaters, continue to blossom on the ice. “It was the end of one chapter, but the beginning of a new one for me,” she says.

It’s a given that Porter and her family are over the moon about the two new sheets of ice. But Porter plans to explore new sports and activities too. “The rock wall is really fun, and I’ve been enjoying taking drop-in fitness classes at the gym. I already have a lifetime of memories at Mount Vernon, but I know there are still so many to be made here.”

— Aditi Iyengar, Fairfax County Park Authority Marketing and Communications Intern

What stories will you write at Mount Vernon Rec Center? Visit today to begin your own adventure at the newly renovated facility! Have an inspiring story to share? Send it to the Park Authority at parkmail@fairfaxcounty.gov or share it on social media using #MVRCstories tagging @FairfaxParks.

Celebrate the reopening of Mount Vernon Rec Center on Saturday, November 15, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Learn more and join us!