EVERETT, APRIL 15: Get ready to put on those gardening gloves for the sixth annual Downtown Planting Day.
The Downtown Everett Association (DEA) will once again host a community gathering to plant flowers in the street planters throughout downtown. Volunteers are welcome to help 9:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. Saturday, April 26.
In April 2020, the City of Everett announced that due to budget shortfalls they were forced to cut its flower program, DEA Executive Director Liz Stenning wrote in an email.
“Our board decided that the program was too important to downtown economic development to allow it to end. In May 2020, we launched a pilot flower program and hosted the first Planting Day,” Stenning wrote.
Thus began the ongoing tradition of Planting Day. Since then, hundreds of volunteers have contributed to the program, Stenning wrote.
There are nearly 300 planters and hanging baskets to maintain in downtown Everett and costs $16,000 a year through donations made to Downtown Everett Partners.
Volunteers will meet at the Wetmore Theater Plaza, Wetmore Avenue Everett, at either of the two check-in times, 9:30 a.m. or 11 a.m. You must register for this event.
You can stay the whole time, or just long enough to do one planter, whatever your schedule allows.
If you have it, volunteers are encouraged to bring:
- Gardening gloves
- Gardening tools for planting & weeding, e.g. trowel, hand rake, hand pruners, etc.
- A bucket for toting your tools, if desired
- Weather protection, e.g. sunscreen, hat, sunglasses, rain gear
- Refillable water bottle
If you own a gardening cart/wheelbarrow/wagon, the DEA encourages helpers to bring some sort of transporter to make transportation from Wetmore Plaza easier.
“We hear from people who have participated in the planting day that they take great pride seeing the plants they planted grow and thrive throughout the summertime,” Stenning wrote. “I am so glad that we took that leap of faith and have kept the program going year after year. The flowers bring people together and add to the vibrancy of downtown.”
Adopt-a-Planter
If you’d like to donate or contribute to the Downtown Flower Program, see here. Suggested donation amounts are $25 to sponsor a mini planter, $60 for a small planter and $75 for a large planter.
