The Sumner Rotary Club agreed to donate $26,000 last week to the Daffodilians, the group that runs the festival.

And princesses from the Daffodil Festival’s 2008 Royal Court came together over the weekend to hold a car wash fundraiser, raising about $350.

The City of Puyallup is also drafting a letter to the Daffodilians asking how the two entities can work together to ensure the festival’s continued success, Mayor Don Malloy said Monday.

“The festival is a wonderful thing in our community, and we should be careful to not lose the things we really value,” Malloy said. “We need to come together.”

The Daffodilians board voted last month to put the festival’s traveling float in the garage for the rest of the summer, canceling appearances at 11 parades.

Board President Ron Simchen estimated that the move probably saved the group about $22,000 in gas, food and lodging costs for the traveling crew and festival royalty.

He warned that if donations to the festival don’t increase before next year, the group might not be able to put on its Grand Floral Parade, which runs through Tacoma, Puyallup, Sumner and Orting every spring.

It would also cancel the festival’s royalty program, which awarded more than $52,000 in scholarships this year to 23 princesses from high schools in Pierce County.

Sumner Rotary President David Eck said the group wanted to do what it could to maintain the Daffodil Festival’s presence in Sumner.

“It is very much a part of the inner fabric of our city every year and how we define ourselves,” Eck said.

About $6,000 of the Rotary donation will go to next year’s Royalty Court, said Robyn DeLorm, the Daffodilians’ funding director. The rest will help reduce the festival’s $40,000 in debt from this year, cutting it by about half, she said.

To cover its remaining losses, the group will need to dip into its savings fund, reducing it to about $60,000, DeLorm said.

Though donations to the festival have declined since 2004, the group still raised about $160,000 in contributions during the 2006 fiscal year, according to tax records.

The group will need to raise about $150,000 during the next fiscal year to ensure there will be a 2009 parade, DeLorm said.

“There’s a lot of people talking,” DeLorm said. “Hopefully that will translate into contributions.”

Every little bit counts, festival spokeswoman Susan McGuire said.

The 2008 Daffodil princesses set up shop Saturday in the parking lot of the Outback Steakhouse on South Hill, asking for a minimum donation of $5 per car wash.

The $349 they raised is enough to buy earrings for next year’s group of young women, said Kate McKee, the 2008 princess from Eatonville High School, who organized the fundraiser.

The Daffodilians organization covers the cost of gowns and jewelry each year, spending a total of about $3,000 on each princess.

“The Daffodil Festival gives the community so much,” McKee said. “We just wanted to find one thing we could contribute back.”

Melissa Santos: 253-552-7058