A co-founder of Sequim’s flower basket program is retiring but helping to ensure it continues on.
Emily Westcott, a volunteer for many ventures in Sequim, announced she has stepped down in her role 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 basket.
Westcott said she was part of a merchants group (Retail Trade) 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 going on lightposts along most of Washington Street.
Hundreds of students help in some capacity to cultivate the baskets that stay up on City of Sequim streets from June to October.
Westcott said students plant the baskets starting around March and layer the plants so that 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, who already distribute, water and fertilize the baskets, are directly contracting 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 Sequim’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, contact 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.-3 p.m. Aug. 30 at Sequim Valley Airport. For more information, visit http://olympicpeninsula airaffaire.com.
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash A City of Sequim staffer places an American flag prior to the Fourth of July below flower baskets that stretch along Washington Street. The city is now contracting with the Sequim School District’s Agriculture Program to continue the flower basket program following the retirement of Emily Westcott.
Sequim Gazette file photo by Matthew Nash/ The flower basket program started with about 50 baskets in the 1990s, and now includes about 150 baskets each year made by Sequim High School students and placed along Washington Street and maintained by City of Sequim staffers.
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Sequim volunteer Emily Westcott has led the flower basket program along Washington Street since 1996. This year she’s retired to focus on other endeavors, and the City of Sequim and Sequim School District will continue the partnership. Westcott still seeks donations for downtown Sequim Christmas decorations through the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce.
