STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Ditch the gas guzzler and hop on your bike or scooter Wednesday for the Blaine County Recreation District’s annual Bike to School and Work Day.

The free community fun day will be held from 6:30 to 9 a.m. Wednesday, May 20, on the Wood River Trail bike path.

Representatives from 30 businesses and nonprofit organizations will be stationed along the way to offer snacks, bike checks and more. And leaders of St. Thomas Episcopal Church will even be on hand to bless you and your bicycle.

If you’re in a cruising mode, you can take time to read the StoryWalk curated by the BCRD, Hailey Public Library and The Community Library.

Pages of Juana Medina’s “Elena Rides,” about a determined purple elephant learning to ride a bike, will be displayed between Fox Acres Road and Myrtle Street in Hailey. Lucy Knisley’s “Ride Beside Me,” which follows a mother-son bike ride that grows into a large joyful parade, will be presented between 6th Street and Wood River drive in Ketchum.

Both stories feature engaging illustrations and will be presented bilingually. The pages will be up from Wednesday through Tuesday, May 26.

Representatives of businesses and nonprofits will be stationed from the YMCA in the north to South Central Public Health on Cottonwood Street in Bellevue on Bike to School and Work Day.

This year’s sponsors include old faithful and plenty of new faces. They are:

This year’s sponsors are the Wood River YMCA, Big Wood School, Sun Valley Resort, The Elephant’s Perch, ERC, Wild Rye, Ketchum Recreation Department, St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Blaine County Sheriff/Ketchum Police, St. Luke’s Wood River, Sawtooth Botanical Garden, Pioneer Montessori School, Backwoods Mountain Sports and the Sun Valley Museum of Art.

Also, The Community Library Bookmobile, BCRD, Wood River Land Trust, Zenergy, Sun Valley Fire Department, Girls on the Run Southern Idaho, D.L. Evans Bank, Dark /Sky Bike Packing, The Sage School, Rocky Mountain Hardware, Idaho Power, Higher Ground, Power Engineers, Blaine County Education Foundation, Kiwanis Club, The Trailhead Bicycles and South Central Public Health.

Bike to School and Work Day is an endeavor by BCRD, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, to highlight bicycles as a healthy form of transportation and recreation. The paved Wood River Trail runs about 22 miles from Gannett Road in Bellevue to Hulen Meadows north of Ketchum making it easy to move up and down the valley corridor.