A couple of things I attended this past week really hit home a point for me: Women – we care! And we engage!
Boy, was it uplifting yesterday to attend the grant pitch presentations at The Community Library held by the Wood River Women’s Foundation (WRWF). We have so many, many incredible people in this Valley engaged in making this a better place for all residents, whether they are actively working in a nonprofit organization, contributing with their time and charitable dollars, or asking due-diligence questions as a member of the WRWF audience. We can all have our heartstrings pulled by a need, but engaged givers ask the pertinent questions of a nonprofit: is there a concrete plan so that these charitable dollars will be effectively used, and what has been the track record of the organization in the past in doing so?
The range of issues that people are engaging in—making the world a better place in their particular niche—really struck me as a whole when presented all afternoon in 10-minute increments. There were many familiar organizations like NAMI [National Alliance on Mental Illness], The Hunger Coalition, Men’s Second Chance Living, The Senior Connection, Crisis Hotline, The Advocates, and St. Luke’s Wood River Foundation, but some other presentations came from: The Spot, a hole-in-the-wall theatre company that accepts and embraces all kids; the Hailey Public Library’s computer-technology education to the non-Internet-connected or low-tech folks in the Valley; the YMCA providing a summer camp/summer education learning-by-project-doing program in their Power Scholars program; the National Forest Foundation with its Penny Lake project to restore fishing accessibility to the mobility-challenged and families; Saint Al’s request for emergency responder conference fees for all of our emergency responders in the Valley; 3rd Chance Inc./B & G Produce, which provides organic produce to families of drug court clients; and the Blaine County Education Foundation with its successful Scholarships Fair for high school students.
Kudos to the founders of WRWF, Barbara Thrasher and Jo Murray, and to all the women who have given of their time since to build this organization so beautifully into an effective vehicle to educate givers as well as get dollars out into the community effectively. The women who volunteer their time to serve on this board or its grants committee are truly giving our community a gift with their service: Terri Bullock, Kathleen Eder, Sandra Flattery, Kat Vanden Heuvel, Carol Jensen, Gail Landis, Terry LeFaivre, Sandy McCullough, Louisa Moats, Carrie Morrow, Penny Weiss, Gina Wolcott, and Patti Zebrowski. Thank you.
There was another group of moms, grandmothers and concerned women who showed up to the Blaine County Commissioner meeting this past Tuesday to comment during the agenda’ed 9 a.m. public comment time (anyone can come comment to commissioners then) about their concerns about the 4G and 5G pulsating intensive radiation slated to come to our Valley. They calmly gave information to the commissioners with links to 90-page radiation exposure studies, a legal update on the vacation of the FCC’s prior ruling so that now an EPA review is required for any installation, and the information that 22 cities have stopped accepting 4G/5G. They requested that the Wood River Valley be a refuge from this radiation. It makes sense to me to err on the side of caution and not roll out 4G/5G without taking some time to really educate ourselves.
Senior statesman George Shultz has long spoken about the “insurance policy” that he and President Reagan enacted in 1987, “in case the scientists were right about the depletion of the ozone hole.” He explained, “There were people who thought there was a problem and there were people who doubted it. But they all agreed there was a big consequence if it happened. So Ronald Reagan said, ‘Look, let’s take out an insurance policy. At least maybe in the back of your mind you might concede maybe you’re wrong. And the insurance policy is not necessarily going to cost us forever.’ In February 2017, Mr. Shultz reflected, “As it turned out, the scientists who were worried were right and Reagan’s Montreal Protocol came along just in time.”
I was incredibly lucky to meet the former Secretary of State Shultz a couple of weeks ago and thanked him for all his work on climate change. Thank you now also to all the women I met with this past week who are making our corner of the world better for all.
Citizens Climate Lobby May 14, 2018