Signs of spring have finally arrived in downtown Blaine, thanks to Blaine High School students, dedicated community members and a public works crew.
The City of Blaine Public Works Department installed 120 hanging flower baskets and 20 ground planters along a five-block stretch of Peace Portal Drive on Tuesday morning. The plants were nursed and potted in Blaine High School’s greenhouse, with help from the school’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) Horticulture students.
The hanging flower baskets, a surefire sign of spring in downtown Blaine for years, stopped after 2024 due to city budget constraints and planned construction for the downtown revitalization project, which closed sections of Peace Portal Drive for the second half of 2025.
The project resulted in multiple trees being cut down. That, combined with no flower baskets, left Blaine’s downtown core a bit barren.
On Feb. 9, Blaine City Council didn’t pass a resolution approving an estimated $24,000 purchase order for new flower baskets. It seemed that another spring would come and go without blooming flowers along Peace Portal Drive.
Sitting in the audience that evening was Drayton Harbor Oyster Co. (DHO) owner Steve Seymour, who also serves as an adviser for Blaine High School’s CTE program along with local gardener Kelle Rankin-Sunter.
“I’m stubborn, “ Seymour said. “I didn’t make a big deal out of it. I just realized the city’s budget issues and I thought, maybe there’s a way we can do something for less money.”
The duo hoped that local businesses would want a more lush-looking downtown, and knew that CTE Horticulture teacher Mackenzie Schneider would have a platoon of eager workers ready to bring hundreds of plant starters to life.
Schneider commended her horticulture program of around 55 students, all of whom helped to grow the baskets, and the collaborative approach the baskets helped inspire.
“It’s a great collaboration that we were able to do with the community and help beautify downtown,” Schneider said. “I’m really excited to see how we can keep building it out in the future.”
After procuring a donation of roughly 500 plant starters from Blaine’s Van Wingerden Greenhouses — worth around $1,500 retail, according to Seymour — and trading a DHO gift card for hanging baskets to a Lynden business owner, Seymour had the raw materials to get the students started.
Over the next three months, BHS students carefully tended to the budding flower baskets, and public works hauled them off from the greenhouse to Blaine’s “Main Street” on Tuesday for display.
“I just want to see these kids excel,” Seymour said, adding that the oyster company has been a first job to many BHS students. “I guess I got a warm spot in my heart for these young people.”
The plan worked.
So well, that it caught the attention of Blaine Public Schools Foundation founder Traci Bowe. The registered nonprofit wants to keep this tradition alive, and keep Blaine CTE students at the heart of it all.
The foundation applied for T-Mobile’s Hometown Grant program, which has partnered with Main Street America since 2021 to award small towns and rural communities with up to $50,000.
Dubbed “Blaine Blooms,” Bowe and others gathered signatures of support from 36 downtown businesses and letters of support from Van Wingerden Greenhouses, school district Superintendent Dan Chaplik and BHS Principal Beth Eide, Mayor Mary Lou Steward and Councilmember Jiggy Sorrell, and Blaine Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Kristen Gomes.
If awarded, the $48,570 in grant funding — plus an estimated $50,000 in committed in-kind contributions — would sustain Blaine Blooms for years to come, according to the foundation’s proposal.
Winners of the T-Mobile Hometown Grant will be announced at the end of May, Bowe said.
“It feels really good to have so many people working together for a goal,” Bowe said. “Really, I think it’s important that the high school students see their efforts downtown. It helps them take ownership of their city.”
