BY SUSAN GIANNETTINO, KAREN BLISS AND KAREN BOSSICK

Amy Federko has taught a couple generations of children horsemanship skills, along with such values as showing up. Vicky Stewart Smith donated a Letter Quilt found at Sullivan Hot Springs stage stop when Ketchum was known as Leadville to the Blaine County Historical Museum.

Mary Peterson has taught countless Carey girls to quilt. And Thelma Cameron, who became passionate about music as a youth, continues to entertain Wood River Valley audience with her clarinet playing in the Wood River Orchestra.

These are the four women who were nominated by valley organizations to be inducted into the Blaine County Historical Museum’s Heritage Court on June 14 because of their contributions to the fabric of the valley in which they have long lived.

Take a look:

AMY FEDERKO

Amy Federko has a deep love of Sun Valley and the western way of life.

Her grandparents ran sheep and cattle in the region and her father first crossed Trail Creek in a sheep wagon as a boy. Her mother Gail Budge was one of the early organizers of The Community Library, part of a dedicated generation of women who quietly helped build many of the valley’s beloved institutions through volunteerism and community spirit.

In fact, Federko recalls with humorous dismay the Tuesday evenings she helped her mother wash donated clothing for the Gold Mine thrift store, whose sales helped raise funds for the library.

Born in Pennsylvania into a family with longstanding ranching ties to Idaho and Utah, she fell in love with Sun Valley’s sense of home community and outdoor life. And at 16 she decided in 1971 to relocate to Sun Valley on her own.

She quickly embraced the active Sun Valley lifestyle, working at Sun Valley’s Olympic Pool and riding horses. It was a glamorous era in Sun Valley, she said, when the valley’s close-knit social spirit centered around skiing, horses and community gatherings.

After attending Boise State University and ranching in Salmon, Federko returned to Sun Valley to raise her children in the same outdoor-centered, community-minded environment she cherished growing up.

Here, she worked for Sun Valley Company, managed a flooring contracting business and worked alongside her husband Mike Federko, managing such properties as the Reinheimer and Lane ranches.

Federko is perhaps best known for her lifelong dedication to horses, youth mentorship and western heritage. She is one of the last enduring members of the Warm Springs Riding Club, one of the oldest riding clubs in Idaho, and she recalls fondly the Wednesday evening rides of earlier Sun Valley days when friends rented horses from Sun Valley Stables and rode in Adams Gulch before gathering afterward for barbecues and fellowship.

She later became deeply involved with 4-H and the Wood River High School Rodeo Team. For more than 16 years she has mentored youth riders through a 4-H program she helped build to give opportunities to children who did not own horses of their own.

Look closely as you pass by on Highway 75 and you might spot her teaching horsemanship, confidence and responsibility on the horses she provides at a corral near the Heatherlands.

Known for her honesty, grit and straightforward nature—traits she credits to her father—Federko believes deeply in the value of showing up and community. She has long held herself and those around her to high standards of responsibility, dedication and follow through.

She’s served on the YMCA steering committee, volunteered with the Senior Connection and through the Sun Valley-Ketchum Rotary, where she taught a CHOICES course to students focusing on the value of education, self-discipline and time and money management.

Today she continues to share her love of Sun Valley with the next generation, including her grandchildren who come to spend summers riding horses, attending camp and making memories in the valley she has loved for decades.

THELMA CAMERON

Thelma Cameron still lives where she was raised—out Glendale Road south of Bellevue. Her grandfather on her dad’s side emigrated from England to herd sheep in Wyoming before homesteading west of Hailey.

Like most ranch kids, Thelma and her two sisters helped with the chores, rolling hay bales, moving cattle and spending time at sheep camps.

After high school, Thelma studied at College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls, then at Boise State University, graduating with a music education degree. She taught in Challis and Cambridge before returning to the valley and marrying Les Cameron—the guy next door whom she’d known her entire life.

Thelma has long had a passion to ensure the youth of the valley get a solid foundation of both spiritual and practical values. Even to this day she is involved in the Awana international Christian organization for youth and 4-H youth organizations, co-leading the Feed Em and Lead Em 4-H club and serving on the 4-H Market Animal sale committee.

She was a youngster herself when she got started in 4-H. She once sold the bum lambs she raised for a once-in-a-lifetime seven-week trip to Europe. One of only three “Citizen Ambassadors” from Idaho, she visited England, Germany, Holland and Russia.

Cameron’s own four kids, whom she homeschooled, were active in 4-H, and the family has hosted lambs and swine for 4-H kids who can’t raise an animal where they live.

Cameron also helps with Calvary Bible Church’s Vacation Bible School each summer, because, she says, it instills godly values in youth that will help them throughout their lives.

Music remains a passion for Cameron, who took up clarinet as a fifth-grader at the old Bellevue school and played through high school and college. After studying with Jim Hopper, a Julliard graduate at BSU, she taught clarinet and traveled the state lending her talents to such musicals as “Sound of Music” at a Catholic school in Boise.

The clarinet is, in her opinion, one of the most difficult instruments to play because of the intricate finger work it involves to access different octaves. That hasn’t stopped her playing clarinet in the community Wood River Orchestra.

“It has a very full tone, a large range, and it’s difficult in that you have to have a lot of breath,” said Warren. “But I think it’s one of the most beautiful instruments in the orchestra.”

Cameron said she looks forward to every rehearsal and concert: “I’m older and to have this opportunity is rare and a huge benefit to me in my life.”

VICKY STEWART SMITH

Vicki Stewart Smith is a proud fourth-generation Idahoan. Born in the Sun Valley Lodge during the resort’s early year, she grew up in Ketchum surrounded by horses, fly-fishing, skiing and the close-knit spirit of a small mountain town.

Her family house was across from what is now The Community Library and she and her sister Dana (Quinney) walked to the Ketchum Gade School, which was located where Giacobbi Square now stands.

Smith’s father Clayton Stewart worked for Sun Valley, serving as a hunting and fishing guide for such celebrities as Ernest Hemingway and Gary Cooper before rising to work as administration manager of Sun Valley under the Janss Corporation.

Her mother Bernice Stewart worked as the secretary to Averell Harriman, president of the Union Pacific Railroad, before becoming a successful real estate agent.

In 1964 Vicki Stewart Smith became part of the first freshman class at Wood River High School, then known as Hailey High School. After a few years of college, she moved briefly to Alaska, then back to Idaho where she returned to school at Boise State University while raising her children.

She became a teacher’s aide in 1977 and went on to teach third grade for 27 years, dedicating her life to helping children learn.

She has now lived in Hailey since 1972 in the same house she affectionately calls “This Old House” with her husband Paul Smith, with whom she recently celebrated their 53rd anniversary.

Faith has always been the foundation in Smith’s life and she volunteers at St. Charles Catholic Church. She has traveled on pilgrimages around the world, cherishing the opportunity to deepen her faith and learn from different cultures and peoples.

She climbs Carbonate Mountain every other day, gardening in between.

And she cherishes family gatherings with daughter Joy Dobson, a high school teacher in Meridian; son Todd Smith, a guitar teacher in Seattle, and her two granddaughters Megan, who is earning a PhD in microbiology at Berkeley, and Madia, who is pursuing a degree in optometry at Midwestern University in Phoenix.

GAIL PETERSON

Gail Peterson and her seven brothers and sisters grew up in Hailey at a time when the town’s population was just over 1,100 people.

In 1958 she married Alan “Buster” Peterson, a construction and heavy equipment operator. They met while Gail was working at The Mint Bar and Café where Busters would stop in after National Guard meetings. They tied the knot after a year of dating and made their home in Carey where they are celebrating 68 years of marriage.

Peterson had a long career in bookkeeping, including a stint with Glanbia Cheese Plant and Basterrechea Distributing in Gooding.

She and Buster raised five children: Rodney, Ronald, Lisa, Chris and Dustin.

Peterson treasures simple gatherings around the dinner table and making quilts for each of her children and 13 grandchildren. She also has taught quilting to young girls in 4-H classes.

She and Buster have raised Peruvian Gaited horses, proudly riding in Boise’s Centennial Parade where Mary recalls sitting on horseback for hours as the parade stretched on.

Asked what she’s most proud of she answers without hesitation: Her children.

“They all have good families and are good people.”

Peterson adds that the lessons she has learned in life are simple: Live and let live, enjoy life and cherish your children.

“Just be nice to everyone,” she said.