Picture Perfect Queen Anne, the local volunteer-based organization that has charged itself with the task of revitalizing the streetscape of Queen Anne Ave N from Galer to McGraw, is looking for new community members to join its board of directors.

Our goal is a pedestrian and family-friendly, safe and vibrant main street that everyone in our community will enjoy.

If you spend a considerable amount of time at the top of the hill, you’ve likely noticed some of the work PPQA has done to beautify the neighborhood’s main retail thoroughfare over the last few years. Helped along with community support, and grants from the Department of Neighborhoods, the organization has built benches, consolidated newspaper boxes, and greened curbside bulb beds along Upper Queen Anne. The group’s flagship Green Gateway project was completed last spring, after Key Bank and several neighbors pitched in to help.

With another major project completed, PPQA is looking ahead to 2011 for new projects to kick-start in the community. The group outlined plans for several community improvement projects in its Streetscape Master Plan (.pdf). The following ideas are on the table for consideration this year:

• Improvements to the Galer Stairs
• Community Kiosk
• Public Art
• Permanent Signage
• Creating Photo-Op Destination (analogous to Fremont Troll)

PPQA is also looking for community members interesting in joining the team and serving a term on its board of directors. PPQA chair Margaret Okamoto sent the following:

Picture Perfect Queen Anne is looking for people who work or reside on Queen Anne to join our Board. We are an active, hands-on group that works with other community organizations and City government to enhance the public streetscape of the hilltop retail core of Queen Anne Avenue N. Our most recent project has been the redesigned curbs and landscaping at the Galer and McGraw intersections. For further information about us and the Queen Anne Avenue Streetscape Master Plan, please visit our website: ppqa.org.

Interested? Please e-mail Margaret Okamoto at pictureperfectqa@gmail.com.

Picture Perfect Queen Anne is a volunteer-run organization dedicated to beautifying the neighborhood’s main entrances and business districts in the hopes of making Queen Anne a welcoming and vibrant community. (You may have noticed their signs up and down Queen Anne Ave N from Galer to McGraw or some of the flower beds they’ve planted).

PPQA has been working to raise $16,000 for the completion of their “Green Gateways” program (i.e. fixing up the entrances to Queen Anne, installing pavers, and covering the costs of continued gardening and maintenance). Last month the group was just a few thousand shy of their goal.

This week the 8-person board of directors got an extra helping hand when on Sunday, March 14, Noah, a 9-year-old Queen Anne-er and son of PPQA board member Jeff Parker, took to the streets to raise a little extra money for the cause. Board member Virginia Hand wrote,

Noah set up a table at the intersection of Queen Anne Avenue at Boston and started asking passing neighbors to donate to PPQA and the Green Gateways project. Along with homemade banana bread, cookies and brownies (his father says Noah is a baking machine), Noah rewarded contributors with flower seeds donated by Ed Hume Seeds. By the end of the day, Noah had raised over $150, a big accomplishment for the fourth-grader and a meaningful contribution to PPQA.

PPQA is especially grateful to Noah for raising awareness about the group’s mission to make Queen Anne Avenue greener as well as more pedestrian safe and family friendly. Projects include the installation of new cross walks, street lamps, and sidewalks such as those just completed at Queen Anne Avenue at Galer and McGraw Streets.

To sum up, PPQA deemed Noah’s fundraiser “a big success.” If you’re interested in learning more about the project or making a donation yourself, click here.

As for what the neighborhood can expect from PPQA this spring, during the last week of April the group will be installing 30 18″by 18″ pavers inscribed with the names of community members and organizations who have supported the project at the intersection of Galer and Queen Anne Ave N. And on May 1 neighbors will get together for PPQA’s big spring planting day. Anyone interested in sponsoring PPQA and getting their name on one of the last pavers left have until Monday, March 22 to do so. More information here.

Picture Perfect Queen Anne (PPQA), a community organization dedicated to revitalizing and maintaining the neighborhood’s business district streetscape from Queen Anne Avenue from Galer to McGraw St., has just signed on a Platinum Sponsor for their Green Gateways fundraising campaign.

The new KeyBank branch at the top of the hill has donated $3,000 toward the group’s efforts to make Queen Anne Ave more pedestrian friendly, putting PPQA’s sponsorship at $12,000, just $4,000 shy of their $16,000 goal.

“KeyBank has a tradition of being active in the neighborhoods where we’re located. We’re excited to finally have a branch to serve the top of Queen Anne Hill and the Green Gateways project gives us a great opportunity to get involved with our new neighbors,” said branch manager Tia Catli in a press release.

“I’m impressed by how quickly KeyBank stepped forward to support our community. Their generous contribution as the Green Gateways Platinum Sponsor provides a critical boost to our fundraising efforts,” said PPQA’s president Margaret Okamoto.

The funds raised for the Green Gateways campaign will be used to finish installing landscaping for the major pedestrian improvements along the “gateways” to the upper Queen Anne neighborhood – Queen Anne Ave., at Galer Street and McGraw Street.

Landscape design for the project is being donated by neighborhood-based Land2c Landscape Design, and Vertumni Fine Landscaping and Gardening is providing maintenance, donating a large portion of the cost on their end.

PPQA hopes to raise the remaining $4,000 and complete the installation of the Green Gateways landscaping projects by March 1, 2010. Donors can purchase pavers inscribed with their names or the name of the donor organization for $100 per line or $250 per paver. Half of these have already been claimed. For more information on making a contribution or purchasing a paver, visit their website, PPQA.org.