Sycamore High School graduate designs new logo for downtown beautification project

SYCAMORE – A logo designed by Sycamore High School graduate Anna Aska could soon adorn downtown flower boxes, part of a plan by city leaders to enliven the downtown corridor.

The newly established Sycamore beautification committee this spring helped facilitate the installation of flower boxes near area businesses. The committee recently received city permission to pay for a design for those flower boxes. The Sycamore City Council recently approved a plan to pay $100 to Aska for her efforts, which will soon be available for all to see.

Sycamore High School Principal Brian Swanson attended the June council meeting to thank the city for its collaboration. He said the high school’s agricultural department helped create the planters, and the art department worked to design the committee’s logo.

“I just wanted to say thank you to you guys,” Swanson said. “I think this was a great collaborative effort between the Sycamore High School students and the community. It’s just great that our students can really be owned and invested in something like this, so that when they come down, they’re visiting local businesses, and they’re going out to eat with their families, they can show their friends and families. It’s just a really cool collaborative effort and connection that we were able to build with Sycamore High School as well as our community.”

First Ward Alderwoman Alicia Cosky, a member of the beautification committee, said the committee wanted a logo that would reflect the efforts of a group of volunteer Sycamore residents who successfully started a city-to-business partnership that furnished some outdoor, public areas with new flower beds.

“I don’t know if you’ve seen the planters downtown,” Cosky said. “Right now we have written out ‘Sycamore beautification committee.’ The next year we’re just going to put this in one of the upper corners, right or left, and for immediate identification. It’s for residents to know that there are volunteers who serve on a community who are working to beautify our city.”

More than a dozen planter boxes were placed near collaborating businesses in May as a part of the beautification committee’s new program, Sycamore in Bloom.

Sycamore Mayor Steve Braser said he likes the logo, and initiative the beautification committee has taken with the program.

“I think it’s a little bit different than all of the other committees we have,” Braser said. “It’s something that I’ve wanted in here since I became mayor, and I like the direction it’s going. “Even down the line it’ll be able to get identified in case people want to contribute directly to the beautification committee. They’ll know that it’s something they did, the locals, I really like it. So I appreciate your [Cosky] effort you’ve brought forward on this and your board.”