Your Humble Editors and Founders – Katy Whittingham Dunlap, Tom Simek, Kirk Dunlap

Established May 2025 and coming in full form(s) July 2025

Editors’ Note – Your first question may be What is Twig? To be completely honest, we can’t fully answer that question yet. This is all very new even for us. We are just three Johnstown natives who came together to start work in response to what we identified as a need for a news outlet that was local, free, and a little different than sources currently out there. It has never been our wish to compete but only to add. Following the design philosophy “Form follows function” coined by architect Louis Sullivan and communicated to us by our high school art teacher at JHS over two decades ago, our form is evolving as you help us define our function.

Our primary intention is to serve you, the people of our community, and provide platforms for active audience participation in our collective narratives and news. Please share with us news, issues, and stories you want to engage with and consider being a contributor. We would like to create space and many different roles for those interested. We only ask that you be patient with us as we are starting REALLY small and will be learning, changing, and figuring things out together with your help.

Special thanks to fellow Johnstown native, Stacy Snyder-Waner, for her compelling personal narrative that is the heart of this first Memorial Day mini-issue.

Also launching this summer, Tales from the Twig, a weekly telling of local myths, urban legends, ghost stories, folktales and fairy tales told in the oral tradition of campfire tales and in an old radio style and The Twig Podcast. If you are interested in being a guest or have an idea or story, please contact us and stay tuned for more!