Little Black Dress Club to grant funds to nonprofits
Through the mission of introducing women to philanthropy, Little Black Dress Club-Wood River has inspired positive changes in the Wood River Valley community. Since its inception seven years ago, the member-based club has given more than $106,000 in the form of 39 different grants.
LBDC-WR is happy to announce the five recipients of the recently completed 2016 grant season. In total, $12,000 will be awarded to AquAbility, Blaine County Education Foundation, Blaine County School District Chess Club, Crisis Hotline, Environmental Resource Center, I Have a Dream Foundation, Kiwanis Club of Hailey & the Wood River Valley, and The Senior Connection.
Crisis Hotline was the top voted organization in the fall grant session and won its full request. The funds awarded will be used for its “My Life Matters,” a teen-suicide and awareness program for students in the Wood River Valley.
“The program provides students with real-life intervention strategies. Students are also given a list of community resources, including the Crisis Hotline phone number, in a take-home packet,” said Sher Foster, Crisis Hotline executive director.
Little Black Dress Club will host a Grants Awards Celebration at The Cornerstone Bar & Grill, in Ketchum, from 5:30-7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9. The celebration is open to anyone interested in joining the club, and learning about this cycle’s grantees.
Information about the Little Black Dress Club-Wood River can be found at lbdcwr.org.
Lemonade seller donates money to Botanical Garden
“We were so grateful she thought of the Garden with her donation,” said Kat Vanden Huevel, SBG executive director.
St. Luke’s electronic health records consolidated
St. Luke’s Wood River says it’s in the process of moving all patient files into a new electronic health record system. Now healthcare clinic and medical providers in the St. Luke’s healthcare system, from Baker City, Ore., to the Magic Valley, will be able to access patients’ health records, providing new information including medications, immunizations, allergies, lab tests and radiology results.
Called myChart, an Epic software system, it allows patients to review their own medical history, receive test results online and review instructions provided by their doctor. Patients can also manage appointments and send and receive messages from their doctors. Previously separate departments had different software systems, making integration nearly impossible. Now it’s one software system for all providers.
“One patient, one record,” said Joy Prudek, communications coordinator for SLWR.
myChart’s access is dependent upon each provider’s role, so that, for instance, an X-ray technician will not be able to access the same information as the gynecologist. As well, there are periodic audits done to ensure privacy for the patient.
Even when a patient travels, as long as they have access to the Internet, they can access their myChart files in case of accident, illness or injury while away.
To sign up, visit mychart.slhs.org, or call (208) 381-9000.
ERC to team up with cosmetics store
The Environmental Resource Center, of Ketchum, will be at the LUSH Cosmetics store in The Village at Meridian, 3597 E. Monarch Sky Ln., in Meridian, from 12-3 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 12. The ERC will promote awareness of its programs and initiatives to store visitors. It will also sell ERC-customized LUSH Charity Pot lotions. This will be Idaho’s first LUSH Charity Pot event.
In June, the ERC was awarded $13,300 from LUSH Cosmetics to support its Pesticide Action program, which works to reduce the use of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers in Blaine County.
LUSH Cosmetics is an internationally known retailer that sells handmade, environmental-friendly and ethically produced cosmetics. In 2007, LUSH invented a hand and body lotion called “Charity Pot.” The entire purchase price (minus taxes) goes toward supporting humanitarian, environmental and animal rights causes locally and around the world. Since its launch, Charity Pot has donated more than $10 million to 850-plus small, grassroots charities in 42 countries. For more information on LUSH products and its charitable giving program, visit lushusa.com.
For more information on purchasing these limited lotions or the ERC’s Pesticide Action program, contact Hadley DeBree, ERC executive director, at (208) 726-4333 or hadley@ercsv.org
100 Men Who Care awards tubing park development grant to Rotarun
A Valley-based philanthropy group, 100 Men Who Care, awarded a grant to the Rotarun Ski Club last week to support development of a dual-track tubing park on the northwest aspect of Art Richards Mountain.
This major grant will fund about one-half of the project’s development costs, including costs for excavation and grading, purchasing tubes, installing new lighting and constructing a tube storage structure. Additionally, the grant will help fund costs to install a cable tow that Sun Valley Company is donating to Rotarun, to be installed next summer.
The addition of new lighting to support Tubing Under the Lights on Friday and Saturday nights is subject to Blaine County Board of Supervisors approval.
Affordable tubing at Rotarun will provide additional winter recreational activity for residents of the Wood River Valley and other nearby communities.
Rotarun will open the tubing park when there is sufficient snow cover.
Andrus Center Permanently Joins BSU
The Andrus Center for Public Policy in Boise, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is committed to engaging in meaningful conversations about the environment, public lands, fire management and other topical issues. In January, a five-year BLM grant was awarded for Restoring the Health of Public Lands Following Wildfires. In July, John Freemuth, a longtime Senior Fellow for Environment and Public Lands at the Andrus Center, was named as the new executive director.
As well, this past summer the Andrus Center signed a new Memorandum of Agreement with Boise State University to make the Andrus Center a permanent part of the School of Public Service. The agreement stipulates that the Center will serve as the University’s primary policy center on issues of environment and public lands.
Programming in 2016 included Politics for Lunch, Women and Leadership, and the recently concluded Andrus Lecture, Celebrating 100 Years of National Parks with National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis. Both Women and Leadership and the Andrus Lecture were major successes, with standing-room-only crowds in attendance. On March 28, 2017, a symposium, Why Public Lands Matter, will be held.
All donations are handled through the Boise State Foundation and are eligible for the Idaho Education Tax Credit.
For more information, visit sps.boisestate.edu/andruscenter.