{"id":22326,"date":"2025-04-30T00:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T06:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=22326"},"modified":"2025-04-29T16:33:46","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T22:33:46","slug":"the-impacts-of-wood-river-womens-foundation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/30\/the-impacts-of-wood-river-womens-foundation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Impacts of Wood River Women\u2019s Foundation"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mike McKenna<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"One of the great things about being a girl growing up in the Wood River Valley is that you don\u2019t have to look very far for some great role models.
\nA stroll down Sun Valley Road leads past statues of some famous local female athletes like skier Gretchen Fraser, Paralympian and politician Muffy Davis or snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington. Olympic skier Picabo Street even has streets named after her in both Hailey and Ketchum.
\nBut the Wood River Valley is also blessed with lots of female role models off the slopes, as well. Women who are making positive impacts in the lives of just about everyone lucky enough to call our slice of Idaho home.
\nThe Wood River Women\u2019s Foundation (WRWF) is celebrating 20 years of making big, and small but important, impacts throughout the Valley. Fittingly, the idea for the nonprofit first took place on a chairlift.
\nBack in 2005, Barbara Thrasher found herself on a chairlift with a member of the Seattle Women\u2019s Foundation. After hearing about what they do, Barbara was inspired to start a similar group in Sun Valley.
\nWith the help of other local women like Jo Murray, a group was invited to tea to discuss the idea. Almost all the women agreed to join with the now late Camille McCray, handing over the first donation, stating, \u201cYou must start. You must do this.\u201d
\nAn astounding 52 Letters of Interest for support came in the first year the WRWF started giving out grants. It was instantly obvious that our community needed a lot of help and needed some heroes like the WRWF.
\n\u201cWhat\u2019s amazing about this organization is when we ask for help, the hands that go up,\u201d Barbara said. \u201cWe have people who are so talented here. I\u2019m constantly amazed at who steps up to help when we need it.\u201d
\nThe WRWF has given out nearly $5 million to 294 different organizations over the last two decades. Membership has also grown tenfold, with around 300 current members, making it one of the largest women\u2019s foundations in the country.
\n\u201cOne of the things that\u2019s makes us different is that you can do something small or do something huge and still make an impact. Time, treasure or talent, any or all, there are a lot of ways to help,\u201d Barbara said. \u201cIn a small community like ours, you can see the difference you\u2019re making.\u201d
\nThe WRWF just awarded $375,000 to 25 different local organizations. This philanthropy touches every corner of our community; from small start-ups to well-established organizations to helping build a permanent stage for Hailey\u2019s Hop Porter Park.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s about more than money. It\u2019s about education and community,\u201d Barbara said.
\n\u201cThe real power of our organization is the women we draw from. It\u2019s outstanding, both humbling and inspiring,\u201d WRWF President Jeannie Shrouds said.
\nFrom food security to self-confidence, from the arts to the slopes, to just simply having fun and making new friends, life is better for girls growing up\u2014and all us living\u2014in the Wood River Valley because of the efforts and support of the WRWF.<\/p>\n

Find out more at WoodRiverWomensFoundation.org.<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Mike McKenna One of the great things about being a girl growing up in the Wood River Valley is that you don\u2019t have to look very far for some great role models. A stroll down Sun Valley Road leads past statues of some famous local female athletes like skier Gretchen Fraser, Paralympian and politician […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":479,"featured_media":10323,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,38],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chamber-corner","8":"category-sponsored"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/479"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22328,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22326\/revisions\/22328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}