If you plan to take a walk down Mt. Vernon Avenue with Pat Miller, the founder of Del Ray's signature event, Art on the Avenue, prepare to stop. A lot. 

Even on a drizzly Sunday morning when most of the city is either still asleep or futzing about the house in slippers, Miller can't walk 20 paces without someone stopping her to chat or ask about Saturday's festival. 

It appears that she knows everyone, which should come as no surprise since her friends call her the unofficial "Mayor of Del Ray." 

"There is no one in Alexandria that has had more of an influence on Del Ray and that has given more of her life than Pat Miller," said Gayle Reuter, a close friend and the scheduler for U.S. Rep. Jim Moran. "When it comes to anything going on in Del Ray, Pat will know."

"Almost anything in the city, anymore," said Carol Bailey, another close friend.

In fact, Miller's volunteer resume could fill a three-ring binder. She chairs the Alexandria Commission for the Arts, serves as first vice president for the Del Ray Citizens Association and is market master for the Del Ray Farmer's Market. She organizes the Del Ray Music Festival and serves as a board member of the Del Ray Business Association, among an exhaustive list of other things. 

But she is perhaps most well-known for starting Art on the Avenue 15 years ago. The event was an offshoot of an annual block party that ran for several years in the early 1990s to celebrate revitalization efforts on Mt. Vernon Avenue. 

When locals decided to embellish the party to coincide with Alexandria's tri-centennial celebrations, Miller proposed modeling the event on a festival she attended in Ann Arbor, Mich. 

"It just was a wonderful show," said Miller, a native of a tiny town in Iowa who moved to the area 20 years ago to work as a political advertising consultant. "I can remember art, art, art. I can remember great food, great food, great food."

She wanted to recreate the scene on Mt. Vernon Avenue, where healthy businesses were starting to thrive but boarded-up storefronts still existed.

"The key here is to benefit the businesses," she recalled thinking at the time. "Come and see what we have."

The focus on the arts totally changed the party and generated widespread interest, Reuter recalled.

"It was one of those things that you could tell people were going to fall in love with," she said. "People fell in love with Del Ray who didn't know about it. Suddenly, people were like, 'God, what a cute little neighborhood.'"

The first year, Miller had to recruit scores of artists from Eastern Market and other art hot spots in order to fill the route that ran just three or four blocks. But eventually, artists and art lovers came in droves. This year, more than 300 artists will show their work in tents that stretch 10 blocks and spill into the fields at the Mount Vernon Recreation Center. Organizers expect some 45,000 people to attend the event.

The official poster for the 2010 event pays homage to the 15th anniversary with a collection of posters from years past. When Miller saw the design, she was amazed.

"It's like, oh my God, it's 15 years," she said. "I can't believe we've been doing it this long.

"It is somewhat of a milestone," she conceded in her characteristically understated way. 

Miller woke early last Sunday to meet Glenn Christianson at A Show of Hands, the art store she co-owns with Maria Wasowski. Miller and Christianson headed out in a light rain with a roster of artists and a can of neon green spray paint to mark the avenue for the event. 

Miller gets things done in a no-nonsense way. She talked with a reporter but kept an eye peeled toward Christianson, her friend whom she fondly calls "Mr. Logistics."

"Be sure and write those numbers down," she reminded Christianson at one point. "Be careful, don't get (the paint) on the car," she told him at another. 

But she's also imminently friendly. "Hi Rob," she shouted to a man across the street. "Morning, Pat," he shouted back. 

Patty Moran, the principal's assistant at T.C. Williams High School who knows  Miller well, said her friend is passionate, determined and smart—qualities that help her coordinate a wide array of volunteer projects. 

Miller's friends say she also knows all the players in city government, the schools and recreation circles, so she's quick to find volunteers and identify new projects. 

"When you get a call from Pat Miller, you react," Miller said. "She's so soft-spoken and yet she gets people to do whatever she needs. She's truly unique."

Even the athletic department at T.C. Williams demurs to Miller and Art on the Avenue when it schedules major events.

"Pat Miller and her Art on the Avenue really stand out," Moran said.

Miller is quick to heap praise on others and deflect compliments. When told that her friends dubbed her the unofficial mayor, she visibly winced. She's not the frontman, she said. She prefers to work behind the scenes instead, helping make things happen. 

"I have to give," she said. "The community I live in is very important to me. There's nothing better than to hear people say Del Ray is such a cool place. Being a part of helping to build that, it's amazing."