The Festival Advisory Council is a group of volunteers that provide guidance, advice and historical context for Festival events and activities.
Dan Drackett
Dan Drackett has been an active supporter of the Trailing of the Sheep Festival almost since its inception. After a career as an advertising/marketing consultant, writer, advertising creative director and filmmaker in New York, San Francisco, Phoenix and Cincinnati, Dan and his wife, Martine, moved full-time to the Wood River Valley. Dan has served on the boards of directors of the St. Luke's Wood River Foundation, Sun Valley Museum of Art, The Nature Conservancy, Idaho Field Office, Sun Valley Music Festival, Hospice and Palliative Care of the Wood River Valley, Croy Canyon Ranch Foundation, San Francisco Ballet in Sun Valley, 5BRC, Mountain Humane, and currently serves on the board of The Argyros Performing Arts Center. They live in Greenhorn Gulch with, over the years, their Alaskan Malamutes and now their Petite Basset Griffon Vandéen (PBGV) named Raphael – also known as Raffie. They like to hike, ski, and visit their children and grandchildren in New York City. Dan joined the Festival Advisory Council in 2016.
Molly Enos
Molly attended her first Trailing of the Sheep Festival five years ago as a bonding trip with her mom. With each of them living in different cities at the time, the Festival was a great way for them to spend some quality time together. And while Molly enjoys seeing the sheep trailing down Main Street in the Big Sheep Parade in Ketchum, she shared that she “also really appreciates hearing the stories that are sprinkled throughout the Festival – whether it is walking around the Fair, attending one of the documentary screenings, or hiking with John Peavey to see the arborglyphs…there is always something fascinating to learn about the people and the sheep that we celebrate,” she said.
While Molly is a self-proclaimed Southern California girl at heart, she is no stranger to the area as her family’s history is rooted in the mountains above Stanley Lake where her great-grandfather once held mine claims. As a child, she spent many summer vacations wandering through the meadows near the lake and camping on Elk Mountain. “One of the many reasons I have fallen in love with the Festival is its location…it has a familiar place in my heart,” Molly shared.
She also has a secret passion for sheepherding and when asked what a hidden talent of hers is, she enjoys seeing the surprised look on peoples’ faces when she says “sheepherding.” “My interest in sheep really started when I got Daisy, my Rottweiler. Not knowing much about the breed, I came to learn that sheepherding was one of their innate skills. Through instinct testing and then training, she and I competed in AHBA and AKC trials in Southern California. Every Saturday for three years, she and I would venture out for our lesson. It was one of the highlights of my week – being out in the field with her as the sun was just beginning to rise and the air thick with the aroma of the dry earth mixed with hay and lanolin from the sheep. I did not know that when we started out on that journey, it would create a strong bond and deep sense of trust between us, and eventually lead me to a position with this Festival. I miss those times spent in the fields with her and learning about sheep and so it is with the Festival’s events – the Sheepdog Trials and the Wool Fest, specifically – that I am able to be transported back in time,” Molly shared.
Molly is an Architect and Interior Designer by profession, working with clients and developers on not only their private residences but, on large community master plans. She sees her professional life and volunteer board service to the Festival as complementing one another. “As an only child, I learned by observing people and now I appreciate what we are willing to reveal about ourselves through the stories we tell,” she states. “Storytelling is something that I bring into my design practice, too. By telling a story through the design, it becomes a common language between me and my clients – something they can relate to and grab a hold of and something that is uniquely theirs. My involvement with the Festival is about continuing that storytelling so the Festival carries on for many years to come,” she added.
Ever since her first year attending, Molly has always had an interest in volunteering and hopes of becoming a board member for the Festival. Her previous community leadership has included co-founding and directing The Periscope Project, a former community-run, non-profit organization, which acted as a local nexus for art, architecture, and urban issues. Molly also served as a North America Project Director for Port Journeys, an international cultural exchange platform to promote community and creative inter-city exchanges among sister port cities. “Throughout my professional career and my community outreach, I have tried to celebrate and hold true to things that are important – like building and sustaining a community,” she says.
And, although it has been a while since Molly has given her time to community outreach and service, she is excited to get involved in the Festival as a member of the Board of Directors. She is looking forward to furthering her network in Sun Valley and focusing on different generations the Festival may not have reached yet. “This is something that I have come to enjoy, and it is a welcome distraction from my everyday focus. Much of the work I do is centered around community and I would like to apply that same ambition towards something that I am very passionate about,” Molly concluded.
Wendy Jaquet
Wendy Jaquet and her family moved to Ketchum, Idaho, from San Francisco, California, in January 1977. Her husband Jim had been hired to serve as the City Administrator for the City of Ketchum. Wendy and Jim managed the Ketchum Wagon Days Celebration for several years. In addition to serving on several boards and committees, Wendy managed N. Taylor Stonington, Inc., a multiple art gallery and wholesale art operation, from 1980-1983 and was the Executive Director of the Sun Valley/Ketchum Chamber of Commerce for thirteen years from 1983-1997. In 1994, Wendy was elected to the Idaho House of Representatives where she served for the next 18 years in various leadership capacities including Minority Leader. Her last four years were spent on the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee where she worked on many budgets including those of the Department of Health and Welfare. She now serves on the Idaho Board of the Department of Health and Welfare, a gubernatorial appointment. Wendy currently coordinates City Tours for elected and NGO leader as well as staffs the Resort Cities Coalition. She also organizes a once a year “day at the capitol” for educators considering administrative positions such as superintendent. Wendy joined the Festival’s Advisory Council in 2016.
Kathi Kimball
Kathi was raised on a farm in Buhl, Idaho, where her family cared for a garden, small dairy, and a few sheep and pigs. Her dad picked corn, potatoes and tomatoes every morning and delivered them to stores throughout the Magic Valley of Idaho. It was there that Kathi learned the importance of producing fresh, wholesome, quality food.
When she went away to college, Kathi had thoughts of being a teacher. Instead, she fell into work with the University of Idaho Extension and 4H Youth Development. The work spoke to her and gave her the chance to educate on a broader and more personable level. Although it was her dream job to be Martha Stewart, Kathi got a glimpse of that world in working with 4H where she was able to wear a lot of hats – educating youth about culture, heritage and science, enjoying the great outdoors and animal husbandry. And, as a Master Gardener, Kathi also shares her passion with others including youth in the Junior Master Gardener Program. (A husband, three children, seven grandchildren and one great grandchild all also now enjoy sharing her interests!)
Kathi had the opportunity to get involved with the Trailing of the Sheep Festival when it first started…and everyone did a little bit of everything. She was asked to join as a volunteer in year three of the Festival to help get the 4H kids ready to lead the Big Sheep Parade. Soon thereafter, she started helping with the Festival’s Sheep Go To School program. (In this outreach, a local rancher goes into the 4th grade classrooms of five schools in Blaine County during the time in their curriculum when they are studying Idaho history to teach children about the history, joys and struggles of sheep ranching life in rural Idaho. Yearly, over 200 children are reached through this effort.)
Her work with the Festival fit right in with her 4H and Extension work as a way to teach about the great outdoors and about history – two of Kathi’s true loves. These passions were instilled in her as a young child and spoke to everything she believed in as she loves the people and the whole culture of the sheep industry. “Educating people that this is real living history of today and that it still really exists is important,” Kathi shared. “This isn’t a hobby; it is a livelihood,” she added.
Diane Josephy Peavey
Diane Josephy Peavey writes stories from her family’s Idaho sheep and cattle ranch about the history, people and the changing landscapes of the American West. Many of her stories aired weekly for 18 years on Idaho Public Radio and are collected in her book Bitterbrush Country: Living on the Edge of the Land. Her writings have appeared in numerous magazines, journals and anthologies and her librettos on Lewis and Clark in Idaho and the history of the Nez Perce Indians were set to music and performed throughout the region. She was the Literature Director for the Idaho Commission on the Arts from 1992-1997 and currently is on the Idaho Humanities Speakers’ Bureau. Diane is a board member of the Idaho Center for the Book, is on the Regional History Committee for the Ketchum Community Library and, in 2014, was appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to the 13-member national American Lamb Board. She and her husband John co-founded and are both still active with the Trailing of the Sheep Festival. Diane joined the Advisory Council for the Festival in 2016.
Alberto Uranga
The son of a tuna boat skipper, Alberto was born and raised in the Basque village of Mutriku. At age 19, he was drafted by the dictatorship to serve in the Spanish Navy in Cadiz for two years. After his service, he came home to the same fishing factory where he worked before leaving. This time he served as their representative to the wine country of Rioja where they shipped canned fish and where he opened the small business market in Northern Spain and Pirineos on the border of France. “I was doing well but something was missing,” he says. “I wanted to see the world and decided to go to the American Embassy and ask to go to America to work,” he added. He received a letter to go work through the United Rancher’s Association at the Faulkner Land & Livestock ranch in Gooding, Idaho.
Alberto’s life in Idaho begins in February 1968. He and Fernando, another soon-to-be herder from his hometown, arrived in the U.S. not speaking a word of English. They passed through New York then Salt Lake City to ultimately arrive in Gooding to begin the adventure of their lives at the Faulkner’s ranch.
Alberto was 22 years old in March 1968 when he headed into the desert and then the mountains with the sheep. One day, he found a baby coyote near Hagerman, Idaho, which he took under his wing as a companion. Later that season, he looked for his new companion one morning and he heard the howling. Unable to find him, Alberto knew Mother Nature had called him to go and find his mate. “This is one of my stories of happiness,” he shared.
For three years, with four different herders and many bands of sheep, Alberto lived in the mountains and desert for nine months at a time - 99% of the time alone with two dogs and the mountains. “It is a solitary life of long days and nights, but I made it,” he said. “These days, the herders have more access to phones and can call family and friends…but the solitude is still the same if you are alone in the mountains.”
By 1974, Alberto had become an American citizen and, soon thereafter, was hired by the USPS to be a postal worker. Although Alberto was making good money, he wasn’t happy and when a Spokane, Washington, life insurance company found out he could speak Basque, Spanish and English, they came looking for him. This moved Alberto into the world of investments, life insurance and retirement plans – a profession he is still in today. He eventually remarried, had two children and started his own office in 1984 in Twin Falls, soon becoming a Series 7 Licensed Advisor. In 1992, he started Uranga & Associates in Ketchum, doing stocks, bonds and estate planning, eventually changing the company name to Lasaii Benefits. (Lasaii is Basque for “take it easy,” “relax,” “all be will ok.”) Since 2003, Lasaii focuses only on IRA Real Estate where after advertising on airline magazines, now has customers in 37 states. He also taught seminars at the College of Southern Idaho in the Wood River Valley for ten years to prepare others for the field of finance. His daughter, Xole, and son, Sebi, are also involved in the family business.
The Trailing of the Sheep Festival is important to Alberto and he has been involved with the Festival for 17 years. “The legacy I am working for with the Festival is a Basque monument to not forget what the Basques did here. Without the sheep, we might not have Ketchum or Sun Valley. Others were here but they never stayed. The Basques did,” he concluded.
Carol Waller
Carol Waller has been actively involved in the Wood River Valley community and the Trailing of the Sheep Festival for over 25 years. During her previous 13 year tenure as Executive Director of the Sun Valley/Ketchum Chamber & Visitors Bureau, Carol recognized the tourism potential to showcase a unique part of the community’s heritage. She worked with John & Diane Peavey to create the Trailing of the Sheep into a festival in 1997, providing critical organizational, funding and marketing support through the CVB during the Festival’s formative years. Carol now works as director of the non-profit Fly Sun Valley Alliance, which works on strategic initiatives to improve air service to our community, and also provides strategic marketing & PR consulting services to a variety of other organizations and events. Her PR work with the Trailing of the Sheep Festival has garnered national and international media coverage in a variety of outlets including CBS Sunday Morning, USA Today, MSN.com, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, NPR, Huffingtonpost.com, Smartertravel.com, Northwest Travel & Life, Alaska Airlines, and many more. The Trailing of the Sheep Festival, and the unique sheep culture that remains in the Wood River Valley, continues to capture her heart. She enjoys sharing this unique story with a national audience, as well as roaming the Valley with her camera to capture iconic images of the event, and the sheep herders whose work remains a true slice of the authentic American West. Carol joined the Advisory Council for the Festival in 2016.