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| Jim carving the parade float Summer 2002 |
My father, Jim Hartley, recorded a
great story relating to a parade float and challenges surrounding a project he
was involved with nearly 15 years ago. His experience has helped strengthen my
faith in prayer and also God's loving concern for us as individuals. Below are
my father's own words:
"In 2002 I was asked by our
LDS stake leadership to be the co-chairman of a float committee for the stake’s
entry in the Days of ’47 Parade. That parade is the third largest in the
country with hundreds of entries. Frankly, I didn’t like parades and I didn’t
know anything about building a float. They asked me to do it because my
experience and skill with art. They assured me that we had the people and
resources to build whatever the committee could imagine.
The parade theme was “Pioneers
and Patriots: America’s Heroes.” Our three-person executive committee chose a
Pony Express theme and I designed the float with a Pony Express rider emerging
from billowing scrolls of red, white, and blue. On the front of the float ahead
of the rider was a soaring eagle with a letter in its beak. We wanted the
eagle’s wings to flap. We also wanted smoke to come out of the rider’s gun that
was in his raised right hand and out of the flared nostrils of the galloping
horse. We also wanted to broadcast bold western music from the movie, “How the
West Was Won.”
An amazingly talented and
diligent group of 89 people from all six wards in the stake made it happen.
More than 800 labor hours went into the float. Many of the volunteers were
people who would not normally affiliate with their Mormon neighbors. A few had
health problems or were unemployed preventing them from doing anything they felt
was purposeful, until they worked on the float. The project did a lot of good
bringing many good people together.
I was assigned to carve the horse
and rider out of immense blocks of Styrofoam. I had never done something like
that before. I took 1.5 weeks of vacation from work for the effort. Equipped
with a small electric Sawzall with a 12-inch blade, a power sander, a rasp, and
a file, I blindly went to work creating a blizzard of white foam particles all
over our backyard. Every day I became a foam snowman carving in daytime
temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit. I had one smaller block of
Styrofoam for the rider’s head—the final piece of the sculpture. But in my
inexperience as a carver, I botched it in a big way and I didn’t have any extra
foam. There was no room for serious mistakes and it appeared that I could not
finish the job.
I was exceedingly dejected and I
prayed about what to do. As I studied the destroyed head a voice spoke to my
mind that said, “Turn it upside down.” I followed the curious instruction and
in a bolt of inspiration, I could visualize that, with a few adjustments, I
could still salvage the head. It worked. We were amazed to win the “Utah
Award,” one of the parade’s five awards given to floats sponsored by religious
organizations. I even got to drive the float in the parade.
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| The actual parade float for "Pioneers and Patriots: American Heroes" Days of '47 Parade - Salt Lake City, Utah - Summer 2002 |
I had two other amazing
experiences related to that float. First, I felt really bad when I discovered
that we had overspent our stake’s budget by nearly $900. Second, I also felt
bad that all our work would have a one-time purpose. I wished that there could
be some other use for the float or at least for parts of it. For example,
perhaps Boy Scouts could use the eagle. I made both concerns a matter of
repeated prayer. Both concerns were resolved when we were unexpectedly
contacted by the Uinta Basin Medical Center, a regional hospital in Roosevelt,
Utah. From among all the floats entered in the parade, the medical center
wanted our float for parades in eastern Utah. They replaced our name on the
float with theirs and paid us “rent” of $1,000. The float won awards in two
other parades.
I don’t really think that God
cares very much about a parade float. But, I learned that He does care deeply
for me and for worthy purposes."
***
Source:
"James E. Hartley: My Story" written by Jim Hartley himself, November
2016.
