We’re busy typing up all of the thank yous for today’s Twestival. Here’s a very incomplete list just to get a sense of how lucky (and grateful!) we are to be part of Twestival Local in Asheville. Expect detailed thank yous for each of our generous community members throughout the day.

Sponsors & Donors

• LOFT
• Figs and Ginger
• Nine Mile
• Greenlife
• Bruisin Ales
• Type A Mom Conference
• Bourne Media
• Paul Van Heden
• Lusty Monk
• Tomato Jam Cafe
• High Farms
• Sweet Life Bakeshop
• Cake Websites
• Strange Bird Labs
• Applied Solutions
• Asheville PhotoBooth
• Costume Shoppe
• Asheville Pizza and Brewing
• Manic Development
• Ask Asheville
• WNC Magazine
• Mountain Xpress
• Asheville Now
• Tamara’s Fancy Delights
• Thomas Beckett
• June Allison Design

Asheville Twestival would like to thank Sweet Life Bakeshop for donating a spectacular Fruit Torte for our cakewalk. Not only does the torte taste like it was made in a heavenly oven (one of the organizers tried a piece!) it was made with ingredients from Saturday’s Farmer’s Market. The dessert has Italian plums, blackberries and peaches from family-owned McConnell Farms in Hendersonville, NC.

Sweet Life Bakeshop pastries are sold only at the Asheville City Market. This provides owner, Cynthia Pierce, with the perfect opportunity to meet and interact directly with local farmers and discerning customers who share her passion for seasonal and high quality produce and ingredients.

The baked goods she offers change on a weekly basis, depending on which local fruits, vegetables and artisanal products (cheese, honey, etc.) have tempted her the most. On any give week you might find gresh vegetable pies, herb shortbread cookies, fruit or cheese scones, muffins or tarts, or even some seasonally-inspired bread pudding!

Asheville Twestival is very pleased to announce one of our latest sponsors: Cake Websites! We’re so happy to have a fantastic web design company interested in sponsoring our event. Not only did Cake Websites sponsor Twestival - owner, Aimee Ellingsen even baked a beautiful cake for our cakewalk! We’re giddy with excitement (and we hope we win it in the cakewalk!).

About Cake Websites: Cake Websites is an Asheville based custom website design company. They create beautiful custom websites for clients around the nation. Cake Websites is happy to sponsor Twestival because they love food, and most especially local food. On any given weekend morning you can find the Cake Websites crew shopping at local farmer’s markets and whipping up local treats.

We’re gathering all sorts of delicious local pizza toppings for tomorrow’s Twestival at Asheville Pizza on Coxe Ave. One of the latest donations is from High Farms in Landrum. They donated free-range, hormone-free chicken breasts.

About High Farms: High Farms is a family farm devoted to producing the highest quality pasture based meat possible using sustainable agricultural practices which result in food that is healthy for the land and those that enjoy the products of the land. Their meat and egg chickens are fed a 100% vegetarian, drug and chemical free, feed which is locally produced. They also consume about 20% of their diet in fresh grass from daily pasture moves. Look for more grass-fed meats coming later this year!

Thanks so much, High Farms!

We just picked up some delicious and beautiful tomatoes which were donated from Black Bottom GreenHouse! We’re excited to share these lovely, locally grown beauties with you tomorrow at the Twestival.

About Black Bottom GreenHouse: Swannanoa Valley native Robbie Craig has grown and sold local fruits and vegetables for 20 years. Robbie graduated from North Carolina State University in 1996 with an Associates Degree in Applied Sciences in Agribusiness management.

You can find Robbie in Swannanoa - and tell him Twestival sent ya!

Join us in thanking High Country Nursery for graciously donating a lovely tree to Asheville Twestival.

About High Country Nursery: High Country Nursery offers a variety of fine and unusual plant material for the home and yard. The selections include many unusual trees. However, they specialize in Japanese maples from the slow growing type (Shaina) to the beautiful variegated (Butterfly), as well as the elegant mounding laceleaf types.

From the entire Asheville Twitter Community and the Asheville Twestival Organizers, thanks for giving us a lovely decoration for the Twestival Festivities!

In February, people from all over the world joined together for Twestival and community by community raised over $250,000 for 55 different clean drinking water projects. All of this was organized using Twitter, the social networking tool where “micro-bloggers” post “tweets” in 140 characters or less. Twestival Asheville raised three times the international average.

This weekend, cities all over the world are participating in Twestival Local and the international event promises to be even better, with the hopes of raising one million dollars in one month.

Asheville, North Carolina, known for it’s staggering natural beauty and vibrant arts community is also home to an active Twitter community that will be out in full force for Twestival Local.

On Sunday, September 13th at Asheville Pizza & Brewing at 77 Coxe Avenue from 2PM-8PM, Twestival Local Asheville will be raising money for the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP), a non-profit that promotes environmentally sound, economically viable, and healthy local farming.

Asheville’s Twestival Local will include farm fresh produce, a photo booth, a pizza pie creation contest, Corn Hole contest + some incredible raffle items. In addition to a live musical cakewalk, Asheville’s own Now You See Them will be headlining the musical entertainment.

This is an event not to be missed in Western North Carolina! It will be a great place to hear some Asheville bands and network with internet savvy, influential people in the community while raising money for a good cause. So while we support buying and eating local, let’s take a day to celebrate that at a local gathering!

Purchase tickets here: http://asheville.twestival.com/
Asheville Pizza & Brewing: http://www.ashevillepizza.com/

To find out how you can help, email Twestival Asheville at
avltwestival@gmail.com & follow them on Twitter http://twitter.com/avltwestival. Find them on Facebook at Twestival Local Asheville.

This press release was donated to Twestival by Leaflet PR. Leafletpr.com.

We are thrilled to announce Twestival Local.

We here at Twestival Asheville are gearing up for our next event: Twestival Local. This is an opportunity for Asheville to shine (again!) and help a local charity.  Local organizers @h0zae, @itswendylou, @juneallison , @bentmatches , @ashevilleallie , @mdi along with our developer @loknessmobster are back and will be announcing additional organizers this week!

The benefiting charity will soon be announced and we will begin organizing our event and making calls for volunteers.  Raising over $6000 in goods and services within 9 days, our first Twestival was a huge success.  This time we have more time, more volunteers, and more importantly, all proceeds will directly benefit our community.

Asheville Web Design Company, Applied Solutions Group has been developing the official website http://www.twestival.com and working closely with global organizers to bring the necessary tools to local organizers around the globe.

If you are interested in volunteering please follow:

@avltwestival or Become a fan on Facebook

Stay Tuned.

Sincerely,

Organizers.

P.S. Check out this video we made during the last Twestival

We wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who attended our very own Twestival. Thank you to the members of the Asheville Twitter community, Facebook community, and individuals and small businesses who agreed to help without question. Big thanks to our Sponsors: Strange Bird Labs, Bourne Media, Loft of Asheville, Sensible City, Windows on the Park, Bruisin Ales, Ninemile Restaurant, Applied Solutions Group, Orbiting Studio, Bclip Studios, WuMedia Studio, Reynolds Mountain, The Digital Paintbrush, Thomas Beckett, The MAP, Beverly-Hanks & Associates, and Top Floor Studio. This could not have happened without you!

I would also like to give a very special thanks to Rich Orris from Strange Bird Labs for kicking off our silent-auction drive by recruiting Figs and Ginger, Michelle Ibarra for taking time away from her family to blog non-stop, June Allison from Ninemile Restaurant for sponsoring the Event and dedicating many many hours to the project, Jose Ibarra from Applied Solutions Group for also sponsoring the event and taking away precious time from family and work, and last but not least Wendy Lou (@itswendylou on twitter) who deserves all the credit!

Our event was at Windows on the Park, we had $1 beers from Bruisin Ales and Pisgah Brewing, delicious appetizers from the Colorful Palate. Mountain Water heard about the event and donated several cases of water on the day of! The Orange Peel also donated wristbands on the day of!

We would like to give a huge thanks to our live bands Now You See Them, who agreed to the event before any planning, and Josh Phillips Folk Trio who agreed to help our charity two days before the event, and last but not least Brian Flanders (@bluve), who not only played a set of his own original music but was the DJ at the event and sound guy for the other bands. Please please check out their music, they are very tech-savvy and are some of the most talented musicians in the country.

Thanks again to Charity: Water and Twestival Organizers for pulling this off! Thanks to Chrissy Lindgren for handling the money and Volunteering, Brian Lindgren for giving us Wi-Fi on the day of the event, Tom Constant (@loknessmobster) for helping with loose ends and web development, JD with AshevilleLive for streaming the event, and of course, Don Makoviney of Makovision, for agreeing to emcee our event 2 days ago.

Our rough estimation is currently around $4000.00. We are tallying up our totals for $1 beer sales and all bar tips from the night (thanks to Bruisin Ales for refusing to take any money from the event, and Windows on the Park for donating all the tips!)

If our estimates are correct, we can safely assume that the total amount raised, including event cost, will be $5000.00!!! Not bad for only 9 days of planning, eh? Our biggest thanks goes out to the Asheville Community and Asheville Bloggers, for coming together very quickly for a great cause. Thank you Asheville and Thank you Twestival Organizers for Charity: Water.

P.S. Don’t forget to check out our iPledge Project. Big Thanks to Orbiting Studio and Bourne Media, they deserve all the credit for the vid Music for the video donated by Steve Jamesson!
(handler of the Famous Apollo Creed Travels!)

A special thanks to Strange Bird Labs for helping with the initial organizing and sponsoring the Asheville Twestival.  He was also responsible for kick starting our call for silent-auction items, by recruiting Figs and Ginger who donating 30 pairs of handmade earrings.

Thank you Rich from Strange Bird Labs

About: Strange Bird Labs, Inc. is a boutique web development shop led by Rich
Orris. Working with both businesses and non-profits, we specialize in
building custom Drupal modules and themes to make your site look and
work exactly how it should. We believe in web standards, open source
software, and the semantic web.

About: Figs & Ginger is a husband and wife team making adorable yet sophisticated Eco- Friendly sterling jewelry which is designed to complement that sexy black dress or simply spice up your favorite ripped jeans. Each piece is either forged, sawed, or soldered by hand and much of their work is inspired by the simple beauty found in forests, both imaginary & real. You can find them in select galleries & shops across the country and abroad.