For the week of March 5 - 11, 2003

Chamber picks Community Awards winners

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The Sun Valley/Ketchum Chamber & Visitors Bureau will honor five individuals and three businesses at its 6th Annual Community Awards night on Friday, April 4, at 7 p.m. at The River Run Lodge. Awards will be presented to: Jeanne Cassell for Citizen of the Year, Abbey Christensen for Youth Citizen of the Year, Glenn Janss for Arts Advocate of the Year, Dave Stone for Youth Advocate of the Year, Pete Cantor of Ketchum Automotive for Environmental Advocate of the Year, Ron Brans for CVB Volunteer of the Year and both Paul Kenny’s Ski & Sports and The Red Elephant Saloon in a tie for Business of the Year.

Each year the CVB solicits nominations from the public to recognize individuals, organizations and businesses that have made significant positive contributions to the community. The CVB’s board of directors reviews the nominations in each of the categories and selects the winners for the year. This year the CVB received 66 nominations.

The public is invited to attend the 6th Annual Community Awards reception and dinner presented by the Sun Valley/ Ketchum CVB. Seating is limited and tickets are $40 per person. To make reservations contact Erica at 725-2103.

Businesses of the Year

Paul Kenny’s Ski & Sports (Owners: Baird Gourlay, Andy Berman and Brian Webber) and The Red Elephant Saloon (Owners: Rob Cronin and Brendan Dennehy)

The category ended up in a tie this year, so two very deserving businesses from the northern and southern parts of the valley will receive this award for their contributions to the community.

• Paul Kenny’s Ski and Sports

Paul Kenny’s Ski & Sports, which has been in business in Ketchum for 22 years, contributes time and resources each year to over 40 different local organizations, events and programs. These contributions include donations of gear for the Stanley School ski program and Wood River Middle School ESL ski program participants and 15 scholarships to the Hemingway Elementary Ski Program. Paul Kenny’s also donates to Rotorun Ski Area, Hailey Ski Team, Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation, Pal DARE program, Montessori, SolFest, Special Olympics, Wood River Animal Shelter, Ketchum/Sun Valley Firefighters, St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center Auxiliary, Elevation Motivation, Ducks Unlimited, Sun Valley and Nordic Ski Patrols, Avalanche Hotline, Sun Valley Junior Hockey, Sawtooth Botanical Gardens and many others. The owners of Paul Kenny’s also encourage their 40 employees to contribute to the community, and lead by example. They have served as board members of the Hailey Ski Team, volunteers for the annual Janss Pro-Am, Ski-swap, Elevation Motivation, programs in all local area schools, with Sawtooth United soccer and with the Adopt-A-Highway program for the Boulder Creek area of Highway 75.

• The Red Elephant Saloon

Owners Rob Cronin and Brendan Dennehy of the Red Elephant Saloon have worked hard over the past 3½ years developing their Hailey business into one that offers a positive experience for both the employees and customers. They have also worked hard to give back a tremendous amount to the community through the promotion and hosting of numerous fundraisers and charity events for various individuals and organizations. With the help and support of Brendan and the staff of the Red Elephant, Rob and his wife Kris, have been tireless in their efforts to raise funds for Camp Rainbow Gold, a summer camp just north of Ketchum for kids battling cancer, and most recently organized and hosted the extremely successful Share Your Heart Ball, raising over $140,000 to support Camp Rainbow Gold and the Make a Wish Foundation of Idaho. The Red Elephant Saloon also contributes time and resources each year to many other organizations, events, programs, and those in need. A few include the Barkin’ Basement Thrift Store, the Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley, the Advocates, the Men’s Basketball League, Rotarun Ski Area, Company of Fools, a fundraiser and memorial for Elysa Logullo, a local 10 year old who lost her battle to cancer, a fundraiser for James Aschliman who suffered a house fire, and a fundraiser to benefit Rachael Poe who is in need of a second kidney transplant. The Red Elephant Saloon enthusiastically hosts fund-raising events/benefits to support friends and the community. As noted in one of their nomination forms, "if there was a ‘Biggest Heart of the Decade’ award, these guys should surely win!"

Citizen of the Year

Jeanne Cassell

Jeanne was selected as Citizen of the Year because her actions and activities have provided a significant positive benefit to the community as a whole. Jeanne has been a regular visitor to the valley since the late 70s, and moved here permanently with her husband Bill 6½ years ago. Since then, Jeanne has made an effort to get involved and make a difference with a number of important community organizations and causes. For three years she served as president of the Advocates for Survivors of Domestic Violence, and is currently on their Community Advisory Board. During her tenure in this volunteer position, she headed up a fund drive, with no professional help, and raised over half a million dollars. This fund allowed the Advocates to build a safe house for women and their children which is now fully staffed 24 hours a day, and last year provided over 40 women and 35 children with 1,500 nights of care for those in need. Under her leadership with the Advocates, an endowment fund was also established which now exceeds $400,000 and she helped start Celebrate, the Advocates annual fundraising event which brings in over $150,000 per year.

For the past three years she has also served on the Sun Valley Center for the Arts Board of Directors, and in a term as Board President, where she helped strengthen the Board and expand educational programming in the valley schools. Jeanne’s many other volunteer leadership positions have included serving on the Community Labyrinth Committee, Co-Chair of the extremely successful fundraising campaign to renovate St. Thomas Episcopal Church, member of the Blaine County Recreation District Committee to support passage of a bond to help build a swimming pool in Ketchum and other recreational facilities throughout the valley, member of the Caritas Chorale, and volunteer with local area Brownie Girl Scout troops. Jeanne is known as someone who works tirelessly to get things done and does so without fanfare. She is a retired Professor of Education, mother of three and grandmother of six.

Youth Citizen of the Year

Abbey Christensen

Abby was selected as Youth Citizen of the year because her actions and activities have greatly benefited the community through an extended period of community service. Abbey, who is 17 years old and a senior at Wood River High School, is one of the original founders and is currently president of the Blaine County Teen Advisory Council. The group, which meets weekly, consists of high school and middle school students that work to improve our community for youth through the Developmental Assets Curriculum. Through the teen council and her work with Youth-Adult Connections (YAK), Abbey has donated countless hours of service for projects including helping elementary and middle school students with their homework at The Study Place and the After School Club, creating and designing the Teen Job Board at Atkinson’s Market, helping initiate the TGIF Teen Bus on Fridays between south and north valley, working on The Best of the Valley fundraiser, and helping to coordinate Friday night teen activities such as bowling, dances, ice-skating and arts and crafts at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts. She has also been actively involved in the creation of the new Student Union/Teen Center being planned for the old high school building. Abbey has served as youth representative on the Hailey City Council, on the Blaine County Recreation District 10 Year Plan Committee, and has attended the Idaho Governor’s Roundtable Conference and the Healthy Communities Healthy Youth Conference. Abbey is recognized by both peers and adults for her great leadership skills and her commitment to expanding the opportunities available for youth in the community.

Arts Advocate of the Year

Glenn Janss

Glenn was selected as the Arts Advocate of the Year because she has demonstrated an exemplary level of support for the arts in our community over the past three decades. In the early 1970s, Glenn worked closely with the owner of the Sun Valley Company (who later became her husband), Bill Janss, to create a cultural facility for the valley. The product of their efforts, the Sun Valley Creative Arts Center, offered seminars in the arts and humanities as well as summer classes in ceramics, printmaking and photography. Many arts organizations in the valley owe their existence to a direct link with this incredible effort. Glenn had the courage and the drive to make our valley a place where the arts have flourished and become such a richly rewarding part of our community. Glenn has served as a past board member of the Sun Valley Center for the Arts and is currently chair of the Center’s Advisory Council. She was also very involved in the community-wide discussion about the five-acre Sun Valley city parcel, funneling important views to the Sun Valley Arts Foundation from the Local Advisory Board she chaired specifically for that purpose. She is an art collector and patron, and she created the docent program at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and founded the Collectors Forum at the Boise Art Museum. She also serves on the national board of The Nature Conservancy and the Institute of Noetic Sciences. Glenn has raised five children in Sun Valley and continues to volunteer her time and talents to enhance our community through the arts.

Youth Advocate of the Year

David Stone

Dave was selected as the Youth Advocate of the year because he has demonstrated an exemplary level of support for youth in the community though active involvement in youth organizations. In 2001, the Hailey and Ketchum/Sun Valley Rotary Clubs decided to sponsor an Interact Club at Wood River High School. Interact is Rotary International’s service club for young people age 14-18. In order to make this happen, it would be necessary for a Rotarian to step forward and volunteer to lead this new group, providing input and guidance while allowing the club to govern and support itself. Dave, a Wood River High School alumnus, did just that, wishing such a club would have existed when he was a student. From the very beginning, Dave’s energy, commitment and leadership have shaped this club into one of the most active in the state, with over 50 members. His own children aren’t even in grade school, yet Dave showers these high school students with encouragement on almost a daily basis. Dave’s volunteer hours spent with Interact in the past two years would be hard to track. Special volunteer community service projects Dave has helped the Interact Club with include Rotary Great Wagon Days Duck Race concessions, babysitting for The Advocates and Parent’s Night Out, clean-up for the Fireman’s Ball and after home high school football and basketball games, CVB hospitality booth at the airport during the holidays, Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation Nordic Junior Nationals race, highway clean-up and many others. Last year the club raised $3,000 to support an orphanage in Bolivia and this year their international project is to raise $9,000 to put three girls in Nepal through college. Their next project is to paint a house in the valley for a needy family or person free of charge. Dave, who is owner of the local business Emerson-Brooks, and devoted family man, exemplifies the Rotary credo, "service above self."

CVB Environmental Advocate of the Year

Pete Cantor/Ketchum Automotive

With this new award, the CVB is excited to recognize Pete and Ketchum Automotive for an exemplary level of fostering environmental stewardship in the community. For the past 25 years, Pete has been a leader in Blaine County in managing his small business in an environmentally safe and sensitive manner. The auto repair business is all about working with hazardous materials and fluids. It is rare to find shops that take the time and expense to properly dispose of and recycle toxic materials when it is not mandated by the Department of Environmental Quality. Ketchum Automotive recycles and disposes of the following waste items, in the safest possible way, at their own expense: tires, batteries, oil and lubricants, anti-freeze, toxic metals, wiring, plastic, gasoline and diesel fuels, electrical, air conditioning and heating materials. Ketchum Automotive is recognized by the auto repair industry for their leadership in protecting our environment with clean and professional business applications.

CVB Volunteer of the Year

Ron Brans

Ron was selected to receive this award in acknowledgement of the hundreds of hours he has contributed as volunteer Parade Marshal for the annual Ketchum Wagon Days celebration since taking over that position in 2001. Ron, who is a retired mortgage banker, has lived in the valley with his partner, Tina Hill, since 1996 and has always had a love for "the cowboy life." He has horses of his own and has also worked at the Sun Valley Horseman’s Center. When Max Thompson retired from this volunteer position as Wagon Days Parade Marshal, Ron jumped in with great energy and enthusiasm to work alongside event coordinator Heather LaMonica and the Wagon Days volunteer committee. In his role as Parade Marshal, Ron works closely with the ranchers from Blaine County and all over southern Idaho who bring in their wagons and teams to participate in the parade. He has also been instrumental in bringing in new parade entries from around the West, and working closely with the Big Hitch mule driver, Bobby Tanner of Bishop, CA, and the City of Ketchum to insure the historic Ore Wagons are being properly maintained and preserved. Ron is committed to helping grow Wagon Days into a weeklong celebration that will bring additional visitors into town to enjoy our area’s western heritage and history.

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.