STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
You’ll have to pursue wellness on your own this year.
The Sun Valley Wellness Festival has been put on pause for 2023 as the Sun Valley Wellness Institute Board of Directors construct a reboot called Wellness 2.0 that they say will align with the times and be specific to the community’s needs.
The pause comes one year after the Festival’s 25th anniversary.
When the festival started in 1997 wellness was not a mainstream movement. The local community voted at a Sun Valley/Ketchum Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours function to make wellness the focus of a new community event.
And they assigned The Chamber, led by Carol Waller, with the task of gathering wellness experts and advocates to create the event, which has been recognized as one of the longest running wellness festivals in the world.
SVWI Board President Allison Quistgard Scherer said the board will meet with stakeholders and community groups to understand programing needs and collaborate and deliver in the most relevant way possible. The Board is also exploring the development of a speaker’s series and in-depth weekend wellness workshops.
“We are so grateful for all the support and accolades received for the Sun Valley Wellness Festival over the past 25--we know that the event benefited the participants and our community in a multitude of ways,” said Quistgard Scherer.
The festival lost one of its co-founders and most ardent supporters this week with the death of Cheryl Welch Thomas. Thomas, owner of Chapter One bookstore in Ketchum was a driving force of the Festival since its inception.
Welch Thomas was honored at the 25th anniversary with a scholarship established in her name.
She had been at Chapter One Bookstore for 47 years, owning it since 1991. And she could always be counted on to host book signing parties for local authors and cart books to places like The Community Library for other book signings. Friends say it is expected that Chapter One Bookstore will continue to remain open.