SEQUIM — A co-founder of Sequim’s flower basket program is retiring, but she’s helping to ensure it will continue.
Emily Westcott, a volunteer for many ventures in Sequim, has stepped down in her role of seeking sponsorships for the program.
“I had a lot of fun and people were very generous,” she said. “It just felt like the right time to move on.”
She and retired Sequim High School agriculture teacher Derrell Sharp started the program in 1996 to support the Sequim FFA with about 50 baskets and sponsorships for each one.
Westcott said she was part of a merchants group that was privately funding Sequim’s baskets, but she felt the effort could be a partnership with high school students in the agriculture program.
Names of supporters would be put on each basket for $100, and in the program’s best year, it raised $16,000, Westcott said.
Funds were dispersed equally between the high school’s agriculture program and the downtown Christmas decorating effort.
“It was a win-win situation, and people loved to support it,” Westcott said.
Now the program boasts an average of about 150 baskets a year. They go on lightposts along most of Washington Street.
Hundreds of students help in some capacity to cultivate the baskets that stay up on Sequim city streets from June to October.
Westcott said students plant the baskets starting around March and layer the plants so they’ll be full and blossom through the summer.
The project had been a joint effort between Westcott, the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce for bookkeeping, Sequim High School and the city of Sequim.
Now, city staff members, who already distribute, water and fertilize the baskets, will contract with the high school to make the baskets. Paul Bucich, Sequim’s public works director, said they paid $8,000 this year through the city’s streets department, which is primarily funded by the city’s general fund.
Westcott used half of the sponsorships to support the downtown Christmas lights program.
She plans to continue decorating portions of downtown Sequim with volunteers but continues to seek contributions to replace lights and add decorations.
To make a tax-deductible donation through the chamber of commerce, call Westcott at 360-670-6294.
Along with Christmas decorations, Westcott remains active in weeding lots with volunteers across Sequim, and she’s co-organizing the Olympic Peninsula Air Affaire and Sequim Valley Fly-in set for 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 30 at Sequim Valley Airport. For more information, visit http://olympicpeninsula airaffaire.com.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. He can be reached by email at matthew.nash@sequimgazette.com.
