STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Meet Raiza Giorgi, the owner of the valley’s newest dress shop, when The Chamber presents its Business After Hours on Thursday, June 23.
The new Hailey Heritage women’s clothing store and Click IT are teaming up to hold the free get-together from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at 400 N. Main St. in Hailey.
BAHs are free—an opportunity to meet local business owners and nonprofit leaders and find out what’s happening in the community, said Chamber Director Mike McKenna. Food and beverages are provided and fun swag is given away in a BAH raffle.
Come Friday and Saturday the community is invited to meet the owners of the new Trailhead Bicycles shop at 111 N. 1st Ave. in the Meriwether Building in Hailey.
The owners will kick off the summer with beers and bike stories at 6 p.m. Friday night. They’ll then lead a no-drop ride Saturday morning, finishing it off with a family-friendly party at the shop from noon to 4 p.m. There’ll be food, beer, activities, free water bottles and other swag and raffle prizes.
Those who attended the first BAH of the summer season two weeks at Jane’s Artifacts might have heard retired Fire Capt. Ron Taylor describing some of the more memorable assignments he had over years of working for the Wood River Fire Department.
Among them, the time he was assigned to drive an ambulance within inches of the detail taking then-Vice President Dick Cheney from Friedman Memorial Airport to a fundraiser on a ranch south of Bellevue. Cheney had had several heart attacks, he explained, and it wouldn’t have done for the nation’s second in command not to have had medical services close at hand.
Mary Cone, meanwhile, pointed out several “heatable, huggable” sloths and zebras her children have fallen in love with at Jane’s new stationery store.
Stuffed with flax seed, you pop them in a microwave oven and they come out cuddly and warm, she said.
Store owner Jane Drussel gave one of Cone’s children one of the dolls when he broke his shoulder and the twins got their own soon afterwards.
“Now every night since my children have wanted to sleep with them,” she added.
McKenna said it was great to see the BAHs up and running after two years hiatus due to the COVID pandemic.
“A lot of people are excited. It signals a return to normalcy,” he said. “People have missed them and when they’re going well it’s like a glorified high school reunion.”
Jane Drussel was the first to step up, and volunteer her shop for a gathering, he noted.
“Jane’s amazing,” he said. “And she’s quick to lead in any way she can when it comes to the business community.”