Great Falls — The Great Falls Garden Club is raising money to pay for its Streetscape Project, which aims to plant 17

trees along both sides of Walker Road along the Great Falls Village Centre.

American plum, fringe and redbud trees stretch between the commercial district from Georgetown Pike to the Safeway grocery store.

The garden club and the Celebrate Great Falls Foundation have a goal of raising $20,000 for the project.

“Fourteen of the 17 trees have been planted,” said Candace Campbell, a garden club member and past president. “So far, we’ve raised about $14,000, I think.”

Rossen Landscape in Great Falls planted all of the trees.

“They’re watering the trees to make sure they make it through the summer,” Campbell said. “Actually, they’ll be watering the trees until the ground freezes. That’s a very large part of the expense in watering them.”

Jill Banks, an oil painter who lives in Fairfax and paints at the Artists’ Atelier studio in the Great Falls Village Centre on Walker Road, helped with the effort by donating an original oil painting she valued at $3,500 titled, “Village Centre Walk.”

The oil painting depicts Walker Road as it may look when the 17 newly-planted trees reach maturity. The donated painting is being raffled off by the Celebrate Great Falls Foundation to support the Streetscape Project. Up to 100 raffle tickets at $50 will be sold and can be purchased by credit card or via PayPal online at www.celebrategreatfalls.org/great-falls-streetscape.

The painting is framed and Banks also offered to paint the raffle winner into the portrait.

“She will paint them into the scene in a way that they want,” Campbell said. “Maybe walking their dog or driving a classic car. That makes it a totally unique, individualized painting.”