SANDY, Utah — On Tuesday, July 21, the hall of parade floats at the Mountain America Expo Center in Sandy, Utah was filled with the sounds of conversation, cries of wonder, and the sound of footsteps. The floats rose majestically above the patrons, each paying homage to the ancestors of the first settlers who came to the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847.
In keeping with tradition, various stakes of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah were selected to create parade floats honoring the first pioneers. Each float is designed from the ground up by local church members, and it’s up to them to make their vision a reality.
Relying on the talents of local members and the tender benevolence of upper management, those involved are able to participate in a special and faith-filled experience. Many of those who designed, built, and completed the floats said that without their faith and trust in the Lord, their vision would never have come true.
Almost everyone used the word “miracle.”
Above the noise that filled the air, I could hear the sound of water splashing. The sound of rushing water on parade floats is usually a cause for concern, but not for float coordinators at the South Jordan Utah Glenmoor Stake.
“We wanted to portray the love that comes from the gospel spreading throughout the world,” said Cori Shaw, a member of the Glenmoor stake float committee.
The float features a model of the Salt Lake Temple on a large granite rock. Water flows from the base of the temple and splashes into several puddles. The bottom pool is surrounded by a colorful garden full of flowers, insects, and animals.
However, the flow of water does not stop there. Above the bottom pool is a globe with symbols representing the various philanthropic efforts of the Church around the world.
“Our theme is ‘Where love flows, hope grows,'” Shaw said.
The flowing water feature is something Shaw and her husband felt captured the essence of the meaning behind the float. As such, Shaw’s husband and neighbor had minimal engineering experience and “just figured it out,” Shaw says. We also chose to add turquoise dye to make the water stand out as a feature.
But for Shaw, the water feature wasn’t what made her a “miracle float,” it was the journey it took to make it happen. Shaw says the journey was one filled with faith.
“We were just hands,” Shaw said with tears in his eyes. “This was Heavenly Father’s plan all along.”
Shaw and her husband were looking for someone to help carve the granite while trying to make their vision a reality. Although the rock itself is made of foam, Shaw and her husband were still unfamiliar with what she called “floating sculptures.”
The foam used in these floats is often expensive and can be difficult to work with. Shaw’s husband was looking at the foam blocks he was purchasing when he asked a store employee for help. When the employees learned what the foam was used for, something unexpected happened.
“He turned back, and we got all this for free,” Shaw said, gesturing to the large rock. “We could do more with the money we would have otherwise spent.”
The Shaws witnessed many more miracles, including family reunions. One of the float volunteers sent his son a photo of the moving water and was able to have a long-lasting conversation with him for the first time in years.
On another occasion, a mother-daughter duo helped arrange the various flowers and greenery seen around the pool below. Instead of helping out for the two hours they volunteered, they returned each day to help prepare the floats, sometimes for up to 12 hours.
As we made our way down the aisle of floats at the Glenmoor Stake, another float rose above the rest. The float was created by the Herriman Utah South Stake and is covered with 324 handmade wooden figures. Each of these dolls represents someone’s real pioneer ancestor who is being burned at the stake.
“We created a website for stake members to upload stories of their ancestors,” said float committee member Amy Morris.
And after creating hundreds of carved wooden figures, the committee decided to allow everyone to participate in creating the floats.
“We hosted an event at the stake center where stake members could come and dress and paint, but they wanted to recreate their ancestors,” Morris said.
The Herriman South Stake is also home to the Polynesian Awards, which proudly represent their heritage on a float with puppets of Polynesian fire dancers, complete with animatronics for the dancers to spin their batons.
Jeremy Moser, co-chair of the float committee, explained that as more names and stories were uploaded to the stake’s website, they realized there wasn’t enough space on the float to carry that many dolls.
But like the Glenmoor Stake Miracle Float, Moser soon received the inspiration he needed to honor all his pioneer ancestors in any way he could.
“One night I was in bed…and the idea came to me, ‘Let’s honor them by making a treasure chest and people can write additional names and put them in the treasure chest,'” Moser said.
As you can see, behind the float, there is a treasure chest filled with pieces of paper among the dolls. Each piece of paper has a different name written on it, honoring the pioneer ancestors who didn’t have dolls made in their image.
As if the treasure chest wasn’t enough, Moser also wrote a song about the stake’s pioneer heritage that played softly from speakers as patrons walked around the float.
In the aisle next to the Herriman South Stake float is the West Jordan Utah Wasatch Meadows Stake (Spain) float. The front of the float features a family reading from 3 Nephi 11 in the Book of Mormon. It depicts a family reading the Bible behind them.
A towering Mayan-style temple with stone-textured steps and a golden staircase with carved facades occupies the second half of the float. Below the temple, a figure modeled after a Nephite can be seen gazing at the temple. At the top, a tube of light is lit from time to time, representing the coming of the resurrected Jesus Christ.
This expression in ancient scripture is used to describe various groups of pioneers. The Wasatch Meadows Stake is Utah’s first Spanish-speaking stake.
“We also come from pioneer backgrounds,” said Wasatch Meadows Stake volunteer Daniel Hernandez. “Our parents were baptized when they were young, and our grandmother was baptized when she was young, so we wanted to share our story with them as well.”
For Hernandez, the floats not only represent different groups of settlers, but also represent the religious freedom that his immigrant ancestors enjoyed in Utah.
“Thanks to the work of the pioneers, we are able to worship Christ even though we came here as immigrants,” he said.
Hernandez says it’s a miracle.
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