Downtown Issaquah Association in need of flower basket funds

The Downtown Issaquah Association is in desperate need of flower basket donations for Front Street this May.

The Issaquah nonprofit, which dedicates itself to keeping Olde Town alive and helping local businesses to thrive, brightens up Downtown’s main thoroughfare every year with colorful hanging baskets.

However, this year the DIA has received only enough donations to cover half of Front Street.

Brenda DeVore, executive director of DIA, said that to fill every pole along Front and along Sunset from the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery to Front Street Market with flowers takes about 30 hanging baskets — each of which costs $250 to purchase and maintain for the spring and summer.

“Thirty-six is really our goal,” she said. “If we can get 36, I think we’d have a great showing.”

DeVore said that people may not realize that DIA is the only association that provides hanging baskets for the downtown area, or they might mistakenly think that the baskets are provided by the city.

“I think people think they magically appear,” she joked.

For the past five years, DIA has bought baskets of Supertunias and Lobelias from Squak Mountain Nursery and paid to have them hung and maintained from May through September.

“It’s a great program and Squak Mountain Nursery does a great job of growing those for us,” DeVore said. “We want to make sure the community knows how that works.”

For a $50 donation, DIA will send a Mother’s Day card to a wonderful mother in the donor’s life saying a contribution was made in her honor for a new flower basket.

Donors who contribute $75 will receive a Mother’s Day card for a mother of their choice, packaged with a box of six truffles from local chocolate legend Boehm’s Candies.

A $250 donation — which funds not only the basket, but also the cost for the basket to be maintained for five months — will be recognized with the donor’s name (or name of someone of the donor’s choice) displayed on the historic Shell community board and included in a press release. Additionally, a photo of the donor and their flower basket will be included in DIA’s social media posts and on its website, and a Mother’s Day card will be sent to the donor’s favorite mother stating that a flower basket was purchased and will be maintained for five months in her honor.

“They really add color to Front Street,” DeVore said.

To make a donation, visit www.downtownissaquah.com. DIA can be reached at 425-391-1112 or at events@downtownissaquah.com.