BY KAREN BOSSICK

Tommy Farr trimmed the doorways and hung the doors when he and his wife built their dream home in Muldoon Canyon during the summer of 1980.

“I finished the house after John Lloyd Construction got it started for me,” said Farr, who worked as a district ranger for the Ketchum Ranger District. “It’s a real experience for me to look at all the things that need doing and not be able to do them.”

At 96, Farr still gets around. He’s a regular visitor to the Senior Connection where he swaps war stories with fellow World War II veterans while enjoying a heaping helping of Chef Erik Olson’s cooking. But he hasn’t been able to paint his house or trim the trees on his expansive property east of Bellevue for several years.

That’s where the Sun Valley Board of Realtors came in.

About 30 realtors showed up at Farr’s doorstep on a gorgeous morning last Thursday armed with a chainsaw, brooms, paint and other tools.

They promptly went to work pruning branches, thinning out dead cottonwoods, painting the barn and staining the deck. And Manny Ornelas switched out Farr’s tub in favor of a shower, which will be easier for Farr to get in and out of.

The work was done as part of the 5B Realtors for Veterans program started last year to assist veterans with housing.

“Tommy Farr put his life on the line for our country. So now it’s only right that we give back to him,” said Debra Hall, owner of Hallmark Idaho Properties. “What we’re doing here is so small compared to what he did.”

The Sun Valley Board of Realtors has been assisting a veteran with his rent for 15 years. But board members decided to expand the program last year after hearing of a statewide program building homes for homeless Idaho veterans.

Local Realtors raised $16,000 with their inaugural 5B Realtors for Veterans Fun Run last fall. And the next will be held on Sept. 30, said Amanda Ornelas, the Sun Valley Board of Realtors’ executive director.

On Thursday Realtor Lane Monroe showed up even though he was nursing a few broken ribs and other injuries sustained in a fall. As he supervised the work, he learned that Farr had served in Okinawa at the same time as his father.

“Tommy flew planes with the Army Air Corps and my father was a mechanic keeping them running. I find that so cool,” he said.

The 300-plus members of the Sun Valley Board of Realtors are assessing the need for housing and for help like that offered Farr so he can stay in his home.

“There’s 1,500 veterans living in the valley according to the last census and we don’t hear about them a lot. But we do need to take care of them,” said Hall.

She’ll get no argument from Lisa Leach, one of those who turned out on Thursday.

“I’m happy to paint, pull weeds—anything that’s asked of me. Anyone who served our country—I’m proud to help in any way I can,” she said.

By the end of the day, there was a new layer of paint on the barn. And a pile of stuff had been removed from the porch so that Farr could look out his living room window onto the canyon beyond.

“It feels real good to have some help around the place,” he said. “I’m just amazed at the local talent willing to come out—in this case, to help me.”

LOOKING AHEAD TO HOLIDAY BASKETS

The Sun Valley Board of Realtors raised $17,000 for its Holiday Baskets program a couple weeks ago with its Golf to Give Tournament. But it can use more.

Last year the program provided a holiday meal and toys for more than 1,700 adults and children in Blaine County.

“A lot of people have donated toys, and an organization plans to do a toy run for us in September. We’re crossing our fingers we’ll get what we need,” said Amanda Ornelas, executive director for the Sun Valley Board of Realtors.

The organization that has long held a toy run didn’t hold it last year, leaving the Sun Valley Board of Realtors scrambling for toys. And this year, the Realtors lost their staging station for Holiday Baskets at the Armory after the Hailey Police Department moved into the those quarters.

The Realtors plan to stage the effort at the Community Campus, but it offers a fraction of the space that was at the Armory,” said Ornelas.