STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

On a pleasant evening in July, about three dozen men and their spouses gathered on a private lawn underneath the red rock cliffs south of Ketchum. There, as they noshed on hummus and wine, they came face to face with three representatives of Wood River Valley nonprofits who had come to make a pitch for their money.

The occasion was the July meeting of 100 Men Who Care, a loose knit philanthropic group that meets four times a year to consider projects of Blaine County nonprofits that could use a little seed money.

Marty Lyon recounted how 100 Men Who Care started with 15 men who showed up at his home, each contributing $100 to Ketchum Community Dinners after it was nominated by one of those in attendance.

Maija and Al Eerkes were among those in attendance.

Since, men have donated $694,000 to valley nonprofits through the loose knit organization. A record $85,850 was donated at it May meeting, in part because of women who offered donations on behalf of the Wood River Land Trust’s efforts to purchase the Hailey Hot Springs Ranch after reading about Ron Greenspan’s $25,000 matching challenge.

A total of $69,850 was raised towards the Hailey Hot Springs purchase at that meeting.

Lyon said there are 312 men on the group email list.

“Individually, the gift we give may not be that significant. But, collectively, they’re very significant,” he said.

Steve and Lynne Heidel were also in attendance at the summer social held at Bill and Linda Nicholson’s home.

There is no overhead, added Jeff Nelson. A hundred percent of the funds that come in the door go to the nonprofits.

On this particular evening, three organizations had been nominated to receive donations by regular attendees  of 100 Men Who Care: The Liberty Theatre Company, Salvation Army and the Sun Valley Culinary Institute.

Emily Meister is the new executive director and artistic director of THE LIBERTY THEATRE COMPANY, having taken over for Naomi McDougall Jones who is writing a book.

A professional dance theatre artist, choreographer, director and performer, she told those gathered that she is originally from Maine but more recently from Los Angeles, Calif., where she directed The Artists’ Lab at AMDA College of the Performing Arts.

Emily Meister described the work of The Liberty Theatre Company.

“I have always looked for a place in the mountains where I could live with my family,” said Meister, who moved here with her husband and son. “I’m elated and excited to step into one of the two original professional companies in the valley.”

The Liberty Theatre Company has created radical access to theater with its Pay-What-You-Feel season pass created two years ago. The first year it old 600 Pay-What-You-Feel passes; it sold more than 800 this year.

“It provides accessibility to anyone regardless of income,” she said. “Last year it allowed many to see theater who had never been able to see theater before.”

The group serves nearly 8,000 patrons each season, she added. Each new production contributes to the cultural fabric of the valley and the overall vitality of downtown Hailey, with theater patrons enjoying dinner before a play and drinks afterwards.

Lee Pollock shared why he nominated the Sun Valley Culinary Institute.

The company offers education programming in the schools and a high school apprenticeship program. The Liberty Theater has also made it its mission to support the Spanish Community. It offered Spanish versions of its “Alice and Wonderland” radio play. And it’s commissioning a Latino playwright his month to write a play based on a Latino folk tale for the holiday season.

Its 24-Hour Theatre Festival roster filled up in three days, with actors from 8 years of age to 93 writing and performing original short plays.

And The Liberty Theatre Company partners with Idaho Shakespeare Festival in Boise each year to bring in two free shows designed for children to learn about theater.

Richard Brown recounted how he got started volunteering with the SALVATION ARMY while living in Houston.

“Once you ring the bells in the city, it’s infectious.”

The group has no overhead.

“What we try to do is disseminate to those in need. This year we’ve had an inordinate amount of requests. Our $35,000 budget is down to $2,200 so we’ve had to throttle back on children with medical needs. It is the first time we’ve been short.”

Almost 90 percent of the funds raised by the Salvation are raised during the 90-day period leading up to Christmas via the kettle drives in front of Atkinson Market and other businesses, he said.

“100 Men has been good to us—they move our needle,” he added, noting that the group has contributed to the Salvation Army before.”

Brown said the Salvation Army hopes to have more presence this season.

“We pay the firewood provider, the mechanic. We don’t hand money directly to people. And all the money we raise here stays in Blaine County.”

The SUN VALLEY CULINARY INSTITUTE is entering its fifth year of offering a professional culinary program to students. It just graduated eight students from its 2024-25 class—students who came from The Advocates’ Skills for Success Program, Wood River High School and The Space, as well as from Boise. And another group—most of them from the Wood River Valley—just started in September.

With the help of scholarships, they pay just $3,000 to $5,000 of the $15,000 tuition. And they earn money working at local restaurants.

The school’s culinary director, Jorge de la Torre, teaches culinary skills, such as knife work and various ways of preparing fish, during a 10-week period September through November. Then, students work at restaurants, such as the Ketchum Grill, Pantry, Sawtooth Brewery, Tundra and Gretchen’s during the ski season. They return to class for another 10 weeks during slack season before returning to work in restaurants during the busy summer season.

“We have restaurants begging for our students,” said de la Torre.

“It’s been five years so we’re starting to wear out our equipment,” said Executive Director Karl Uri. “There’s nothing sexy about you giving us a wooden spoon, but we need that to move on with our new students.”

Over the weeks following the July meeting, the donations poured in: $11,200 for The Liberty Theatre Company, $8,800 for the Salvation Army of Blaine County and $3,400 for the Sun Valley Culinary Institute, or $23,400 in total.

The total gifts now number $694,320 since the group’s founding, with the numbers expected to exceed $700,000 when donations from Tuesday’s meeting are counted.

The Liberty Theatre Company was thrilled with its gift, said Chris Carwithen.

“The company has embraced a dual mission,” he added. “It’s set itself up as world-class professional theatre bringing national artistry together with powerful local talent. And it’s accessible, most notably through its Pay-What-You-Feel Season Pass. Attendance overall has increased nearly 400 percent in the past couple years.”

The company musical “Waitress,” which it staged in July, was its highest grossing, most attended and most expensive production to date. With the funding the theatre company received from 100 Men Who Care, it can cover many of the operating and production costs of its 2025-26 production season, support its educational and radical access programming and begin planning for monthly community artist readings and creative workshops.

“We are deeply honored and so grateful to receive this support from 100 Men Who Care-Wood River Valley,” said Meister. “This gift is an incredible acknowledgment of their belief in our mission to create professional theatre that is both artistically ambitious and radically accessible. We are excited to invest these funds into our community, our artists, and the future of storytelling in our valley.”