Mara would have liked the cherry blossom tree and pink flowers.

They will grow and mature, just as she would have. They will blossom around her birthday each year, sprouting her favorite colors.

“It’s perfect for her,” said Heather Adams, alluding to her 6-year-old daughter who lost an 11-month fight to brain cancer last September. “When we see (the tree and flowers), we obviously will be thinking of Mara and all the love from the community.”

In a gesture to remember Mara, students from Auburn Mountainview High School planted the tree and at least 20 pink and purple forget-me-nots on the school grounds at Arthur Jacobsen Elementary, where Mara attended.

“It’s a birthday present to her,” said Malia Oshiro, a senior who helped organize the project dedicated to Mara, whose birthday was March 26. “It’s something to remember her by on her birthday, something that will grow with her memory.”

Oshiro, her father Al, students and staff braved the wet and cold conditions to place the tree in a side lawn and insert flowers and seeds in the front beds last Thursday afternoon.

The effort came courtesy of the high school’s new club, Random Acts of Kindness Etc., or RAKE, whose mission is to help and honor students, faculty and community members.

“AJ Elementary is so close to us in distance that we all felt the impact of losing such a determined and kind-hearted girl,” said Oshiro, club president. “We did all of this in the memory and honor of Mara Adams.”

To fund the project, RAKE went to work last December, collecting Santa letters in partnership with Macy’s department store to the amount of a $1 donation per letter to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The effort went beyond the club’s expectations, raising a little more than $4,000.

McLendon’s Hardware in Kent donated the tree, Windmill Gardens in Sumner contributed the plants and seeds, and two community members donated money.

“So many donated, so many came to help,” said Patty Eckelman, RAKE advisor and business instructor at Mountainview.

Even Terri Herren, Mountainview principal, pitched in at the planting party.

“We were surprised and thrilled,” Heather Adams said of the project. “We appreciate that they continue to remember Mara and our family.”