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Holiday fundraising efforts for local non-profits are underway Page 5
Lindsay Vonn Makes History at Beaver Creek Page 16
Apple Cake Recipe - a Tasty Treat for the Holidays Page 24
One Classic in Two Locations: Company of Fools take It’s a Wonderful Life to Sun Valley Opera House and the Liberty read about it on Page 9
D e c e m b e r 1 4 , 2 0 1 1 • Vo l . 4 • N o . 5 0 • w w w.T h e We e k l y S u n . c o m
Rotarun to Open Saturday with Gift to Boot BY KAREN BOSSICK
T
he snow may have been scanty these past few weeks. But that isn’t fazing those at Rotarun Ski
Area. They plan on opening the small ski hill west of Hailey for its 64th season on Saturday, whether they get snow or not. And they’ll do it with pizzazz—with as much free skiing and sledding as the snow allows, a free pancake breakfast and the presentation of a check that will help the ski area make snow in the future when the snow is slow in coming, as with this year. The check is being Janice Seagraves presented by the Seagraves Foundation in memory of Janice Seagraves, who was born in nearby Democrat Gulch eight years before Rotarun was founded. After attending college in Salt Lake City, Janice lived for a while in Utah, Texas, and Nampa, Idaho. She eventually returned to the Sun Valley area where she worked at Atkinsons’ Market from 1991 to 1997. Janice bought a winning $48 million Idaho State Powerball ticket in Arco during the Christmas season in 1996, said Rotarun board member Joan Davies. But misfortune quickly followed fortune, as she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Undaunted, Seagraves requested that her winnings be used to create the Seagraves Family Foundation to benefit charities along the Highway 93 corridor from Nevada to Custer County. The foundation has created an endowment for children being treated for cancer at St. Luke’s Magic Valley Regional Medical Center and donated to St. Luke’s Magic Valley Health Foundation’s Cancer Patient Emergency Fund. It placed a projector in every classroom in Twin Falls and created a Buhl Pocket Park. And, it’s benefitted the Senior Connection in Hailey, the Mustard Tree Community Wellness Clinic in Twin Falls, a CSI Foundation scholarship endowment, People for Pets and the South Central Community Action Partnership. The Rotarun Ski Area board requested $25,000 for operating expenses. But the foundation generously gave a donation that went beyond the initial request, said Davies. The amount should cover the $50,000 needed to secure water rights, she said. Additional money will have to be raised to purchase and install the snowmaking equipment. But, optimally, Rotarun could have snowmaking by next season—something that would extend its season. “A gift was bestowed on the Wood River Valley in 1939—the year that Janice Seagraves increased the population of the Valley by one—and the gift is still giving,” said Davies. “The Seagraves are grassroots kind of people—I remember Janice’s mother Emogene ran a thrift shop on River Street. And, if anybody didn’t have the money to buy something, she gave it to them, anyway. “It’s such a wonderful statement that the family has chosen to main-
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Point Your Compass…
due north
ABOVE: After Welcoming Aircraft, 1960-61; LEFT: Pannichiak (Noted Dorset Artist), 1960-61 COURTESY PhotoS : Anne puchner
The public is invited to see these and other photographs by Ann Puchner in the Due North: Images of Baffin Island and Inuit Art Exhibition at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, which opens with a reception from 5:30 to 7 p.m. this Friday, Dec. 16. BY KAREN BOSSICK
A
s a career gal, Ann Puchner had some pretty memorable moments. She met the reclusive Howard Hughes in his grey flannel suit, white button-down shirt and white sneakers while working as the secretary to the superintendent of the airlines that Hughes owned. She promoted tourism for the Yugoslav government at a time when many Americans had no idea where Yugoslavia was. She worked for the Metropolitan Opera in the days when their Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts were eagerly anticipated by a majority of Americans. And she even posed as a rehearsal stand-in for Queen Elizabeth when she was charged with putting together a reception for the queen and her husband at the Waldorf Astoria. “It was 35 bucks a head. I bought royal blue for the occasion—what would you do?” Puchner said. “She was the only woman surrounded by dignitaries from the Catholic Church. I remember her walking through with her husband behind her—he was quite a ladies man. The queen was gracious, about my size, a year older, I think—I liked that.” Perhaps the greatest adventure for the career woman, however, came in 1960
when she left New York City with her husband, her blond, blue-eyed 18-monthold daughter and a Siamese cat on an icebreaker bound from Montreal to Baffin Island six days away. She went there on behalf of Canada’s Department of Northern Affairs and Natural Resources, which wanted to acquaint art dealers with the carvings of the Inuit who lived deep in the Arctic. While there, the New York-born Puchner captured daily life 200 miles south of the Arctic Circle with her Nikon camera. About 30 of Puchner’s photographs documenting everything from dances to seal hunts will be displayed in a new exhibition titled “Due North: Images of Baffin Island and Inuit Art,” beginning Friday and running through Feb. 10 at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts Hailey Center, 314 Second Ave. S., in Hailey. Puchner and Ketchum resident Page Klune, who is contributing Inuit sculpture from her own collection for the show, will discuss their photographs and collection during an Opening Celebration from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Friday. Refreshments will be served “Ann’s photos are beautiful and they capture what daily life was like there, giving a glimpse into a way of life that
“Ann’s photos are beautiful and they capture what daily life was like there, giving a glimpse into a way of life that most of us will never experience.” –courtney gilbert
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