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SUMMER 2020
Seattle real estate expert Jim Thorpe, celebrated Mother’s Day by partnering with local non-profit Mary’s Place. In an effort to show appreciation to mothers in need, Thorpe gifted the women at Mary’s Place Mother’s Day cards. The thoughtful gesture included a custom greeting card from his real estate development company, Summit Capital Partners, and an Amazon gift certificate. The gifts were distributed to 200 women staying at the non-profit’s family shelters throughout King County.
COMMUNITY TREEHOUSE
JIM THORPE SPONSORS CLASSROOM IN SKY
Seattle real estate expert and community leader, Jim Thorpe, has donated to help fund the construction of The Villa Treehouse at Villa Academy. The treehouse's main purpose is to provide various outdoor learning experiences, activities, and projects despite the weather. Jim Thorpe is passionate about giving back to the community and has a long history of supporting local causes. This latest donation is another example of his dedication to helping those around him. Thorpe's construction team at Summit Capital Partners helped oversee the five-year development of the Villa Treehouse- including fundraising, permits, planning, and construction. Completed in the summer of 2020, the Villa Treehouse is the first permitted treehouse in the city of Seattle.
The 1,500-square-foot structure arches over a wooded slope on the campus of the Villa Academy, a private, Catholic PreK through eighth-grade school located in the Laurelhurst neighborhood of Seattle. Dubbed the “Classroom in the Sky”, this one-of-a-kind structure houses two different classes of 15 students at a time and is meant for and accessible by students of all ages. While the original intent of the Villa Treehouse was not to provide expanded learning opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic, it will undoubtedly help the school conduct classes with social distancing in mind.
"The treehouse is such a gift to our students, it motivates them to learn about their environment and get outside more". Director of Villa Academy
The students of Villa Academy will certainly enjoy the many benefits of expanded outdoor learning at the Villa Treehouse. The new outdoor classroom fits in perfectly with the Villa Academy's focus on outdoor learning. Throughout the school's campus, students can explore the ecosystem of a forest rich with old-growth trees.
They release salmon fry at the school's lakefront and even examine water samples using a microscope, study birdlife throughout the campus and gather various data points from the organisms living in the school's organic garden. As the school wrote in its 2016 Fund-A-Need booklet, the Villa Treehouse would be "accessible from the ground level with a formalized overlook and gathering space to take advantage of views of Mt. Rainier and Lake Washington.”
