TwispWorks Executive Director Don Linnertz, left, and Ray Johnston, president of the TwispWorks board of directors, displayed a ceremonial property deed for the TwispWorks campus Saturday (June 29) at the organization’s 10th-anniversary celebration. For more photos of the event, see gallery below.
Hundreds of people descended on the TwispWorks campus Saturday (June 29) to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the purchase of the campus site from the U.S. Forest Service.
Over the course of one decade, the Public Development Authority (PDA) that initially ran the campus and then the nonprofit TwispWorks Foundation converted an abandoned and deteriorating 6.4-acre ranger station into a successful economic and artistic hub in Twisp.
The organization’s success had its reward, which was unveiled at the celebration. The anonymous donor who gave $1 million to the PDA to purchase the campus property in 2009 commemorated the 10th anniversary by promising to hand over the property deed to TwispWorks. An oversized, ceremonial deed stood in during the unveiling. The official deed will be transferred in the coming weeks, TwispWorks Executive Director Don Linnertz said.
The donor had said that if the campus became self-sustaining within 10 years, they would not ask to be repaid the $1 million. The donor reportedly attended the celebration on Saturday, but to the uninitiated eye they blended in among the other TwispWorks donors on hand for the celebration.
The donors themselves mingled among hundreds of additional community members, who showed up to get their faces painted, practice their juggling and receive free root beer floats — or Old Schoolhouse Taproom beer floats, for those 21 and over.
Linnertz read an email from the anonymous donor after he presented the deed.
“We are so very, very proud of TwispWorks for all that it has become and all that it shall grow to be,” Linnertz read. The email praised the organization for all that it does for the “social, cultural and economic well-being” of the Methow Valley.
Linnertz concluded his speech on the shady lawn next to the Methow Valley Interpretive Center with a look to the future.
“We are so excited to lean into the next 10 years and see where this community will take us, and where you will take us,” he said.
G A L L E R Y
Click any of the thumbnail-sized images to view a full-sized photo gallery
