STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Geegee Lowe won’t need to go to the gym this weekend. She’s doing plenty of heavy lifting as she sorts and shelves books for the Friends of the Hailey Public Library Book and Bake Sale today through Saturday at Hailey Town Center West.

Lowe, a longtime resident of Hailey, is a consummate volunteer.

She and three others from the Environmental Resource Center and Wood River Climate Action Coalition stayed up until 1 in the morning every night after the Sawtooth Rangers Rodeo this past Fourth of July going through every garbage bag to sort out aluminum cans for the Kiwanis recycling program.

They ended up getting two truckloads of aluminum cans to raise money for the Kiwanis Club’s park improvements. And they rescued hundreds of pounds of compostable items for compost.

Come every spring, whether it’s bone-chilling cold or a beautiful spring day--you’ll find her out on the bike path handing out Cuties and other treats to schoolchildren and adults who are bicycling to school and work.

And a mere two weeks later you’ll find her in the Hailey Cemetery presiding over Hailey’s Memorial Day ceremony.

Lowe grew up in New Jersey and Connecticut. She and a friend came to Sun Valley to sk, in the mid-1970s and she was smitten. Upon returning to her job as a travel agent, she looked around the room spotting women who had worked there for 35 years.

“I was 24 and I realized didn’t want to be there 35 years,” she said.

Lowe arrived in 1976—the winter that there was barely enough snow for skiers to slip-slide down Flying Squirrel. She married Robert Lowe and they spent the first years of their marriage living at the Ketchum Korral, warming themselves with an electric fireplace and chinking log cabins for a living in temperatures that sometimes dipped to 35 below.

A job with the Sun Valley/Ketchum Chamber offered Lowe warmer accommodations in the old A-Frame Visitor Center that sat on Main Street. She spent three years fielding reservations for all the valley’s hotels.

“There weren’t computers then, just typewriters—I thought electric typewriters were so cool,” she said. “After a year with no snow people were desperate and hurting. We worked together to build things back up.”

Lowe rarely went to Hailey in those days, even though it was just 11 miles down the road.

“Hailey was way down there—such a little town. The only reason to go there was the Merc,” she said, referring to a department store on the block where KB’s now sits. “The Merc was like going to Costco today—it had a little bit of everything--and food.”

Lowe quit work to have what would be the first of three children, while her husband fed the family with the profits from his landscaping company.

“He was also a pilot who flew for Sun Valley Aviation and ATA Airlines, so he’d get on a plane here and commute to Detroit or Chicago. His company contracted to fly troops into Desert Storm and Operation Desert Shield so a lot of the time I thought he was flying in the Midwest he was instead overseas.”

Motherhood launched Lowe’s volunteer career as she helped put on the annual Halloween carnival and other events. She assisted schoolchildren skiing at Sun Valley once a week and she worked the front desk at BCRD’s pools.

“At one time I was a retail substitute, filling in for businesses so people could go on vacations.,” she recounted.

In Hailey Lowe worked for five years as a children’s librarian and at the Hailey Chamber. She picked up cars in Seattle and drove them to Sun Valley, and she delivered lost baggage for Delta Airlines.

“People were very happy to see me,” she said.

Lowe helped start Hailey Public Library’s Book and Bake Sale in 1989.

“We had a babysitting co-cop and decided to have a yard sale. Stefanie Marvel went to the library and found they didn’t even have encyclopedias. So, we decided to give the money we made to the library.”

That was when the library occupied a corner of city hall behind where the city fixed its trucks, the fumes trickling into the library. Then, it possessed Librarian Alba Arndt’s husband’s western collection and some random books. A new building provided the library more space in 1994.

“It’s amazing what they have today. I love reading and I love to see kids read because it opens so many doors,” said Lowe who loves to read historical fiction and listens to mysteries on tape while driving. “And the library is a community center.”

Several years ago, Lowe began organizing Hailey’s Memorial Day ceremony, her passion sparked by her husband who took her to it every year, wowing her with the Warthogs that screamed overhead.

“Robert got two medals for his service,” she said. “I love being able to honor servicemen. I’m infatuated with what it takes to be a soldier—the dedication to put one’s life on the line. And I’m humbled to be part of the ceremony.”

After her husband died in 2014, Mary Austin Crofts took her Lowe under her wing teaching her how to help with the Trailing of the Sheep Festival. Lowe has been a fixture ever since, organizing 200 volunteers each year.

“The Trailing is huge—it gives business people and others a longer season because it provides something very unique for tourists. In fact, October has become one of our busiest months—and it used to be high slack.”

Though the Halloween Festival is long gone, Lowe helps with the Hailey’s Halloween Hoopla each year, working behind the scenes as the Kiwanis Club and Key Club put on a costume show with $300 in prizes.

“The Key Club members from the high school learn leadership, and it’s such a fun day—with a lot of candy,” she said.

Lowe loves that every weekend there’s a nonprofit event that she says makes the Wood River Valley a vibrant community.

“I’ve been to other communities, and it’s not that way at all,” she said. “The Papoose Club events, the things at The Hunger Coalition, the Sun Valley Music Festival—they enrich us.”

“I love walking down the street and saying hello and having people smile back and say hello. I love that I know so many people wherever I go, as there’s other places where you don’t have that experience. With all the world is going through, this place draws people with amazing personalities, all walks of life. I feel like I’m in heaven.”

SAY “HI” TO GEEGEE

The Hailey Library Book and Bake Sale will take place from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. today—Friday, Oct. 25. It will conclude on Saturday, Oct. 26, with a Bag Sale from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Fill up your bag for just $10 on this day.

Proceeds will help support the Hailey Public Library’s programs, services and collections.