BY KAREN BOSSICK

Hailey resident Lynn Campion has been named the Grand Marshal for Hailey’s Days of the old West Parade on the Fourth of July. The parade is one of the biggest Fourth of July parades in Idaho.

Campion is a former national cutting horse champion who began hanging her Stetson hat in the Wood River Valley in the early 1970s. Born and raised in Colorado, she has worked as a professional photographer and authored two books, “Training and Showing the Cutting Horse” and “Rodeo.”

She was selected because of her quiet work behind the scenes to impact the community.

Her family foundation provided much of the financial backing to bring the Campion Ice House in Hailey to fruition.

And, following the 2013 Beaver Creek Fire, it was Campion who was instrumental in getting the National Forest Foundation together with local Forest Service and BLM officials, as well as members of nonprofits like the Idaho Conservation League and Wood River Trails Coalition, to start the 5B Restoration Coalition.

The coalition has helped come up with funds and other types of support to restore areas like Deer Creek that was impacted by the fire.

Campion was also among the founding members of the little Black Dress Club, founded 10 years ago to benefit smaller nonprofit organizations in the valley. As of this week the club has given $131,000, the money coming from a few hundred dollars that each member of the organization contributes each year.

She’s also served as such nonprofit boards as the Community Library, St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center and Hospice of the Wood River Valley.

A former ski instructor for Sun valley Resort, she has also served as a volunteer firefighter and helped bring the first advanced EMT program to the Sun Valley area.

Campion is married to Theodore Waddell, a nationally acclaimed Western artist whose work is shown locally at Gail Severn Gallery. Together the two have written a couple children’s books based on the adventures of Tucker, a giant Bernese dog modeled after their own.

Campion said both she and her husband are looking forward to being part of the parade.

“It’s humbling to be selected as the Grand Marshal by a community that has been so good to me for so many years,” she said.