Growing ‘real roots here’ since 1980
By Eric Valentine
For the organizers of the annual Heritage Court celebration, the second time’s a charm when it comes to placing Connie Grabow on the court. Grabow is one of four honorees for the popular Blaine County Historical Museum event. And when the museum asked her to be on the court four years ago, she declined.
“I wasn’t ungrateful, I just had my reservations because I didn’t think I had done all that much,” Grabow explained. “Looking back now, I realize I have been involved in a lot. I still do a ton of volunteer work, but not as a chairperson or director anymore. I do the stuff that doesn’t get written up.”
Objectively looking at the Ketchum resident’s involvement over the years, it’s fair to say Grabow is understating her contribution to Valley life quite a bit.
Born in New England and happily living in the Midwest after spending part of the 1950s and 1960s working in Germany for the U.S. State Department, she moved here in 1980 when her late husband Leonard unexpectedly said he’d like to improve his skiing. Where better than Sun Valley?
Grabow immediately became involved in the Valley’s active cultural life. For years she was on the board of The Community Library, helping especially with fundraising, and was on the board of Moritz Community Hospital, where she delivered meals to patients and helped make wreaths and decorations for the annual fundraising ball. For two years she worked with a summer program of The Hunger Coalition. She found the tricky part was making sure the kids took at least one vegetable and didn’t just make a beeline to the desserts.
Some of Grabow’s favorite memories as a member of the Sun Valley Ski Club are of helping out groups of visiting skiers, especially when they were mentally or physically challenged. Each Sun Valley helper was responsible for one athlete and would provide transportation, housing, and enthusiastic cheering during the races. An adventure from her early days here was working with a BLM program to preserve ancient Indian pictographs. She and her teammates climbed to the sites and copied the artwork as best they could, creating a record of a fragile past.
Today, Grabow walks to the YMCA from her home three days a week for yoga and water aerobics classes and enjoys the blossoming of the arts here. The Sun Valley Opera, the Community Orchestra, jazz concerts, the film festival, live theater, the writers’ conference, and the Summer Symphony are annual events Grabow says she regularly attends.
“Most of my children live here. My grandson went to school here. My granddaughter went to school here. My husband is buried here,” Grabow said. “This is home. I have real roots here.”
The History of Heritage Court
The Heritage Court is a seasonal program of the Blaine County Historical Museum. It honors four women from each part of the Valley every year who are at least 70 years old and have lived here for 30 years or more. The other common denominator of the honorees? They have to have made a significant contribution to the local history and culture over the years.
Seasonal events include an invitation-only tea for former and current honorees May 21, hosted by The Community Library. June 9 is the big event—the gala coronation at the Liberty Theatre with flowers, entertainment, and refreshments that is free and open to the public.
The Senior Connection in Hailey will honor past and current members of the court at a
luncheon Aug. 8. And the ladies will participate in all the summer parades, too.
The museum’s website includes stories and pictures of everyone honored since the beginning of the Heritage Court in 2004. Check it out at bchistoricalmuseum.org.