The 5 p.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new location of The Treasure Box & Co. on the Friday evening of Labor Day weekend was very successful with several members of the Crestline-Lake Gregory Chamber of Commerce in attendance, including Chamber President Louis Boehle, Espie Murray, John Short and others.

The evening saw over 100 people visit the new location at 23621 Manzanita Drive in Crestline during the evening festivities highlighted with music by The By-Products playing until 8:30 p.m. in the playground area.

The Treasure Box has an outside community garden area where many concessionaires showcase their products. The Treasure Box has basic living essentials, gifts, clothing, rocks and minerals and cottage-made items like jams, jellies, pickles and beef jerky, plus a whole room of games, toys and educational items for children, antiques, almost antiques and much more. Each concessionaire has different items.

This month, Linda Nies has loaned some local items for a showcase of Crestline historical items that are fascinating to explore. The Treasure Box has opened in the former Crestline Presbyterian Church’s preschool building that looks like a castle, which has been used to advertise Crestline Village since Charles S. Mann built it in the 1930s.

The Treasure Box was in the process of relocating when the COVID-19 lockdown was announced and this older building, which has been vacant for many years, needed a lot of rehabilitation, so it took extra time for the building to be able to reopen.

“I am honored so many came to the grand opening, joined in the toast and hopefully will support the many vendors who sell their items in The Treasure Box,” said owner Gary Lopez. “I am grateful I can offer them a storefront where they can sell their wares and grow their plants in the community garden. I believe and hope others do, too, and I believe that this is a worthy repurposing of this historical Crestline building.”