Jo Cassin

Jo Cassin has lived in Boise since 1977 when she enrolled at Boise State with the gymnastics team. She has had a lifelong love of the outdoors and outdoor sports from her early days in Texas, rock-hounding with her large family, to Colorado where she attended school and got more involved in the sports and activities that would shape the rest of her life. Her experience in whitewater boating started at an early age, as did her love of ice skating. That love eventually took her into outdoor retailing at the late Old Boise Bootworks as well as Greenwood’s Ski Haus before starting her own business in 1987.

While attending BSU Jo not only worked as an intern for the Idaho state legislature, she would ride her bike all the way from the BSU campus to the old Boise ice rink on Fairview half way to Meridian. She played on the Boise Hat Tricks women's team and the Boise Knights men's team in the early '80s until the old Boise rink closed in 1987. Jo commuted to Sun Valley for the next few years to practice and play with the Sun Valley Sunsets. Jo is a former member of the Inversion women's team and now plays for the Boise Hericanes. According to her hockey coaches and teammates, “Jo plays clean and gives her all on every shift. She leads by example with a strong work ethic and a valuable wealth of hockey sense.”

She and Stan Kolby started Idaho River Sports in 1987 in Boise’s Hyde Park district. In 2005 they opened a new, larger store near the Boise River in the Northend on Pleasanton Avenue and kept the Hyde Park location North on 13th Street for their new sportswear outlet named EveryWear.

Her tireless efforts supporting the boating, outdoor and hockey communities is evident from what people say about her. “Stan and Jo are awesome people who do a tremendous amount of work and are tremendous supporters of Idaho Rivers United,” said IRU Development Director Jessica Hixson. “Without such dedicated members, we could never do the work we do.”

She and partner Stan Kolby were honored by Idaho Rivers United as Volunteers of the Year in 2004. As members of Friends of the Payette, they witnessed the birth of Idaho Rivers United in 1990. Since then, “they’ve given generously of their time, merchandise, equipment, money, ideas and contacts” to support Idaho’s Rivers through the Idaho Conservation League, IRU and the Idaho Whitewater Association among others. Jo helped establish the Idaho Whitewater license plate program and is an advisory board member and she is active supporting the planning and development of the new Boise River Recreation Park.

In 2004 Stan and Jo worked with the City of Boise Parks and Recreation department to build a wheelchair accessible dock on Quinn’s Pond near the Greenbelt and their new store location. Jo also promotes water sports for girls and has sponsored events by Anna Levesque's Girls at Play program, a whitewater boating program specially developed to introduce girls and young women to the sport of kayaking.

Jo contributes constantly to groups like the Boise Junior League, local schools, the Basque community, and countless others. Jo has been actively maintaining the quality of life for many of us who have worked, lived and raised families in and near Hyde Park. She was a founding member of the Hyde Park Merchants Association and has always made sure the area was clean, decorated for Christmas and greets everyone she meets with a smile.

Currently she is working on the fundraising board for the Ray Neef River Recreation Park project and represents small business and outdoor interests with the Mayor's Economic Development Council. She is also part of the committee that distributes grants from the sale of the Idaho Whitewater State license plate. This year they will distribute over $22,000.00 to support whitewater awareness and safety at the local level throughout Idaho.