June 24, 2018

I feel a need to say again, that I appreciate the thousands of people who gave $5 or $5,000,000, the people who gave ten hours or ten years of their time and talent, to create the Vashon Center for the Arts. I celebrate this miracle, and you are all miracle workers! Every artist who has had a vision and the fortitude to create that vision, no matter what the sacrifice, I am grateful to you; I salute your excellence! I am rejoicing with all of you that we have made physical the dream of one woman and thousands of other people — united as islanders and artists — to accomplish the dream! Art and the visionaries who create art will be celebrated on this island forever. This thought warms my heart every minute of every day.

— Beth de Groen