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NAMI Offers Bike Ride to Fight Stigma BY KAREN BOSSICK
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icyclists are being encouraged to “Fight Stigma & Ride” for the 60 million Americans affected by a mental illness. The event—a new one for the Sun Valley area—will start and end at the River Run parking lot in Ketchum on July 7. The event is sponsored by NAMI-Wood River Valley, an affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The bicycle ride started last year and is in California, New Jersey and Utah, as well, said Carla Young, event manager for NAMIWood River Valley. Young said that people living with mental –Tom Hanson illness need Vice President of a commuNAMI-Idaho and nity that NAMI-Wood River Valley supports them, their families and their recovery. “I was in charge of the NAMI-Boise walk for two years and we raised $80,000, including in-kind sponsorships. I hope we can grow this event to be as successful as that,” she said. “We ride to break down the stereotypes that surround mental illness,” added Tom Hanson, vice president of NAMI-Idaho and NAMI-Wood River Valley. “When we see the same compassion given for a diagnosis of a mental illness as we give for a physical illness, then we will begin to see real change.” The event starts with a continental breakfast at 8 a.m. Cyclists wanting to do a 50-mile ride can head out at 9 a.m. along the bike path to Saddle Road, with loops on Trail Creek, East Fork and Greenhorn Gulch roads. Or, they can choose a 10-mile ride beginning at 10 a.m. and going south along the bike path to East Fork Road and back. There will be rest stops and vehicle support capped by music and food at the finish. Entry fee is $50 and will include a T-shirt and water bottle. The registration fee will be waived for those who raise $250. NAMI is sending two people to a Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) summit this summer, Young said. Those two will come back and offer a similar program here. The program seeks to educate people about what they need to do to be healthy so they have a plan in place in the event of a relapse. For more information about the ride, go to FightStigmaAndRide.org or contact Carla Young at 208-309-1987 or namiwrv@gmail.com. tws
“When we see the same compassion given for a diagnosis of a mental illness as we give for a physical illness, then we will begin to see real change.”
DIVA Wendy Collins STORY & PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
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endy Collins became a mailbox minister in 1967 during the height of the Vietnam War for personal reasons. “I had two little boys and didn’t want them to get drafted because Vietnam was so horrible. I thought if I could show we had a conscientious objector in our family, I could protect them from the draft,” she said, adding that the boys were free to enlist if they so choose. That ministerial license bought through the mail eventually grew into a full-fledged ordained minister’s license and a full-time passion for Collins. She has married countless couples, conducted Sunday services for the Wood River Spiritual Center for seven years and even officiated over the annual Blessing of the Animals. Now 70, Wendy still doesn’t hesitate when someone calls in the middle of the night and needs a person they can confide in. “I call it ministerial sharing—and it involves lots of coffee. If anyone needs anything, I’m available to meet for coffee,” she said. “She’s a very kind, generous and spiritual woman—she doesn’t even charge for funerals,” said her husband Billy Collins. “And she’s too modest to tell you but, at one time, she was even the Idaho State Women’s Champion in Cowboy Action Shooting.” Collins’ self-sacrificing ways earned her the admiration of members of the Ketchum-Sun Valley Historical Society, who nominated her for this year’s Blaine County Heritage Court. She and three other women will be honored for their contributions to the Wood River Valley in a ceremony at 3 p.m. Sunday, June 23, at The Liberty Theatre in Hailey. Wendy and her husband Billy, whom she met on a daily hour-long school bus commute when they were both 14, moved from California to Sun Valley in 1971 after visiting friends who’d moved here. “They took us to Galena and we couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. We returned to check it out in August and never went back. We loved the small, tight community, the fact that people cared about each other,” she said. The average age then was about 27, Wendy reflects. There was no mountain biking, but everyone did a lot of camping and fishing at places like Mackay. Billy pursued work as a carpenter; she was a T-shirt tailor for Sturtevants before opening a sewing shop and herb company in the little building in front of Grumpy’s. Her true love, however, was horses—a love she’d had since her parents gave her a horse as a child. She learned how to use touch, movement and body language to
This pistol-packing preacher has shared 51 years of marriage with Billy Collins, with whom she fell in love as a 14-year-old with a blond ponytail. The couple and their horses have shared a nine-acre ranch, a cozy home heated by a woodstove and made melodic by Wendy’s two guitars on the outskirts of Triumph since 1976.
communicate what she wanted to animals from TTouch Trainer Linda TellingtonJones. She parlayed that into an animal hospice she formed with Sheila Summers and Andria Friesen to help people dealing with dying pets and work at the former Sagebrush Arena, a therapeutic horseriding program for children and adults with disabilities. “Horses are so magical because they’re so big and they trust us,” she said. “They could hurt us because they’re so big but they have such a desire to serve. Talk to them in a common language, in a kind way, and you can get them to respond as if they’re your partner.” Wendy’s years at Sagebrush proved magical, as well. She saw one little boy who had never talked mimicking her after she had continually praised the horse he rode, “Good boy, Jack.” Another boy would talk to his horse, even though he wouldn’t talk to adults. “It’s cool to see the kids gain confidence as they interact with the horses. Little kids with social issues who have never felt powerful feel powerful on a horse,” she said. Wendy’s work with animals inevitably led to using Healing Touch with patients at St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center. She has been certified at Level 5—the highest level there is. “Studies have shown that gently touching in a prescribed pattern can reduce
pain and help people with sleeping. I’ve seen it put someone to sleep who hasn’t slept in a day and a half,” she said. Margery Friedlander marvels at the bright inquisitive nature and sense of humor Wendy exhibited as the two completed Level 5 training together. “She’s a darling, generous and caring, a true friend,” Friedlander said. “And she’s a leather worker, along with everything else she does. When my puppy Tova chewed the handles on both my dogs’ harnesses, she repaired them.” Wendy believes it is important for older people like herself not to think themselves useless. “They can contribute so much if they stay involved,” she said. But she admits she’s in a quandary about how to support young people. “They have so much pressure about how they should look from advertising and other media, when we don’t look like that. When I was young, people worked to help their family. Kids today aren’t called on so much to work to help their family. But they’re deluded to think that if they have money they’re going to be happy,” said Wendy, whose own two sons, Billy and Jamie and their families, live next door to each other in Hailey. “Young people today are not being taught life skills, which are so important to function and feel good about them-
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