Hanging flower baskets will soon appear in downtown Vancouver and Camas. Organizers say the flowers are a colorful reminder that our Main Streets will once again flourish and bloom when the COVID-19 pandemic ebbs.
The cities’ respective downtown associations invite the community to invest in local businesses by “adopting” baskets.
Vancouver’s Downtown Association has been hanging flower baskets for a dozen years, said Michael Walker, the organization’s director.
“It really does bring a lot of vibrancy into downtown and creates a streetscape environment that people want to hang out in,” Walker said.
Vancouver’s Downtown Association purchased baskets from Dennis’ 7 Dees Landscaping and Garden Centers last fall.
A lot has changed since then. The pandemic stay-at-home orders “kind of put a wet blanket on our plans,” Walker said.
Nevertheless, with a little encouragement from Carrie Schulstad of the Downtown Camas Association, which is offering a similar flower basket program, Walker decided to move forward.
“We’re hanging 95 baskets from Fifth Street all the way through Uptown Village,” Walker said. The baskets will be up through August.
The program’s timing coincides with Mother’s Day so that people looking for a creative, safe way to celebrate moms can purchase baskets for a donation of $50, which includes a personalized card. The money pays for the basket, watering and maintenance all summer long, and a warranty guaranteeing that if the basket should fail to thrive, it will be replaced. Mother’s Day baskets are available through May 6 at vdausa.org/flower-baskets/. Those who don’t wish to buy a basket can still contribute to the initiative.
“It’s an investment in the community, but I also want people to know that it’s money well-spent,” Walker said. “It showcases our resiliency, given our current situation.”
Walker hopes that, after the stay-at-home order is lifted, the colorful living baskets will help draw visitors back into downtown Vancouver.
“It will put the welcome mat out when people start coming back, to help establish a sense of normalcy, whatever that looks like,” Walker said.
Schulstad, director of the Downtown Camas Association, understands the importance of an attractive downtown, even — and perhaps especially — during periods of economic downturn.
“When you look at the history, one of the key reasons that our downtown started to get some notice was our investment in flower baskets,” Schulstad said.
Ultimately, it’s a gesture of hope for the future.
“We are going to start showing intentionally that we care about our town, that it has promise and it can revitalize,” Schulstad said. “We’ve proved before that it makes a difference. It’s even more important now that we have businesses that have committed so much and have invested so much.”
Downtown Camas flower baskets are $45 each or two for $90, which pays for one (or two) of 56 baskets on Fourth and Fifth avenues. Downtown Camas Association will pay for an additional eight baskets for Third Avenue.
People have already begun purchasing Camas baskets, available at downtowncamas.com/dca/donate-2/adopt-a-flower-basket-for-downtown-camas, and there has been an outpouring of community support.
“When we launched the request, we had people who donated and left notes … very kind, uplifting messages of hope, messages of the future, messages of us coming together,” Schulstad said. “It’s very clear that our community wants to help, it wants to come together in a strong way, and the flower baskets are a visual reminder of that.”
