BY KAREN BOSSICK

The Spur Community Foundation will examine a segment of the Wood River Valley that makes up a quarter of the population in its upcoming session “Immigration’s Role in the Wood River Valley.”

The free discussion will be held at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 12, at Ketchum’s Community Library. It is the third in the philanthropic organization’s “Giving Thought” Learning Series.

The discussion will delve briefly into the history of immigration, in which Basques, Scottish, Chinese and other immigrants played crucial roles in the early days of mining and sheepherding. It will transition quickly to today when immigrants who largely hail from Latino countries continue to play a key role in the local economy, their children making up more than 40 percent of the students in the Blaine County School District.

Participants include Becky Lopez and Luis Campos of The Allianz of Idaho; Brad Henson, principal at Alturas Elementary School, and Alonzo “Vinny” Salinas, a Wood River High School student. Spur Community Foundation hopes to add a couple more speakers if it can, said Cathy Tyson, the organization’s Operations Associate.

The panel will be moderated by Sally Gillespie, executive director of the Spur Community Foundation.

To see it in person, reserve your spot at https://thecommunitylibrary.libcal.com/event/12688534. The program also will be livestreamed and available to watch later at https://vimeo.com/event/4813235.