BY Isaiah Frizzell
Yes, we’re expanding as a town, city, community. The Wood River Valley is FULL!
We have so many waiting lists, for nearly every service, car, dental, medical. And often we need specialized help that we can’t get in any timely manner, or perhaps we can?
Quote numbers or just look at traffic. The holidays are always a stressful time as everyone tries to work into their daily routine the giving of a suddenly ‘”houghtful” gift. Consumer appreciation via buying an item from the purchase palace, slapping on a “For: You” and moving it to the desired place. It might reinforce the relationship or it might make things right. There’s an infinity of reasons we give gifts on one particular day of the year. Maybe we just like to do it.
The ABC’s of Community
People in Hailey believe in community partly because the geography demands it. You’re in a mountain Valley where winter can be harsh, where you might actually need your neighbor, where the infrastructure of big-box convenience hasn’t completely paved over the necessity of knowing who has a chainsaw or who makes good sourdough.
But it’s more than survival pragmatism. We make a conscious choice here to resist the anonymity that defines so much of generic, bought-and-paid for American life. People stay local not because they have to, but because they’ve seen what gets lost when every transaction is mediated by algorithms and apps and the grinding squeeze of technological and political ‘progression.’ Ever had to remember a phone number? Thankfully, we have our brilliant phones to do that for us! Okey dokey… So, when you need one, but the phone is dead, what now?
Beauty in Community
We have the simplest solution for many things. Nothing solves the phone number issue if you’re in need — unless you know people by car or face and they help you!
Bulletin Boards
These are places to find new, old places with new opportunities: a mobile handyman who does something the swamped businesses are too busy to do (or won’t). The wild range of potential solutions, entertainment, education or just awareness is absolutely critical to a healthy community. How many notifications do you actually look at on your 8-inch phone screen?
So, you check Atkinsons’, coffee shops, bars, but especially any public library (Hailey, Bellevue, Ketchum) for their bulletin boards. They change daily and they are a free incredible resource for what you may need, want or have not heard yet. Here’s what’s happening.
Imagine a free resource that adds value and identity to your local community. Now you know the guy who has a front-loader, the woman who does handmade, one-of-a-kind holiday cards. They are works of art and available, customizable, and made by somebody you likely run into at the post office or grocery, usually begetting friendly, psychologically invigorating chat outside the masses of people you don’t know.
It’s Nice to Know Someone
The Valley’s many bulletin boards aren’t nostalgia. They’re infrastructure for the kind of life people are actively choosing—connected, local, human-scale. The benefits of staying tight with your community are both practical and existential.
Practically, you hear about things before they’re “announced”—the pop-up dinner series, the early-season powder day someone’s organizing a carpool for, the estate sale with the vintage skis. You find work, find collaborators, find the person who knows how to fix your weird European car. Information flows through relationships, not marketing departments.
But the deeper benefit is belonging—the sense that you’re woven into something larger than your individual trajectory. You see the same faces at the market, you know whose kids are whose, you’re part of an ongoing story rather than just passing through. This creates accountability, thankfully, but also generosity. People are more likely to take chances on each other, to share resources, to show up when things get hard.
Democracy?
The bulletin boards are almost sacred in this context. They’re democratic, unmonitored, genuinely free—anyone with a strong skill can participate regardless of whether they can afford or navigate Facebook ads or have (or want) the social media skills to “build a brand.” A hand-drawn flyer for a community play holds the same space as a professionally printed yoga class schedule. It’s folk communication, the kind that predates and will likely outlast our current digital infrastructure.
In an era of algorithmic feeds that show you only what you’re already interested in, a physical bulletin board forces the hand. You go in looking for firewood and leave knowing about the seed swap. You’re exposed to the full range of what your neighbors are up to, not just what some platform thinks you’ll engage with. Here’s the real world, the real market and the reality of life. This accidental discovery is how communities stay dynamic, how new traditions start, how the weird cross-pollination of interests creates things nobody planned.
Take Photos
Use that magic device you’d turn over a car to get to and take photos of the bulletin boards. If something appears you can use, a friend was speaking about recently, send a shot of the person (in the community) and start to build.
The Wood River Valley is and has been growing, almost recklessly, for years. The only way to maintain authenticity, true commerce, trust and genuine care is by looking out for each other. Sure, we’re open to other types of culture, but community is not culture! Community is relationships, friendship, common understandings and communion. While this is interpreted or even advised through cultural lenses, community is a handshake, a phone call/text and the truth of face-to-face interaction. Force the hand of chance. Be the one who knows the one who knows.
Ask for bulletin boards. They can be certainly found at EVERY public library, ALL Atkinsons’ Markets, most coffee shops: Java Coffee & Café, Hailey Coffee Co., thrift stores: The Gold Mine in Ketchum is a great one and you’ll find them in various LOCALLY owned bars and restaurants.
If you have a favorite, please send to publisher@woodriverweekly.com or if you want to talk isaiah@woodriverweekly.com
Yes, we reach more dedicated eyeballs than the bulletin board but two things can be true at the same time.
