And So It Begins

I have mentioned on this blog at least twice... briefly; that Mike and I were called as co-chairmen of our stakes float for the Days of '47 parade this coming July. We were called into the Stake Presidents office within the first two weeks of moving into our new home and ward. As we arrived at the stake center we were greeted by all three members of the Stake Presidency and the call was issued. Now I am being perfectly honest when I say that being called as co-chairmen of the float committee was a big surprise to me, but I thought to myself, co-chairmen, maybe that is do-able especially if we have another couple to co-chair with... I quickly discovered that co-chairmen meant me and Mike. Co-chairmen. For the first several weeks we were able to put the float on the back burner so to speak, but now it's moved forward and it's full speed ahead.

At this point I'm happy to report that our committee is almost completely staffed. We have two people from each ward helping us but hope that hundreds in the stake will help when it's time to actually build the float. Those called have accepted willingly and many others have expressed a desire to help. I have been amazed at people's willingness and have felt so blessed.

This call does not come with a stress-free-guarantee and when I contemplate the magnitude of it, it can be very overwhelming. Mike and I attended a meeting in WVC over a week ago for all of those building religious floats (22 stakes). The people presenting the information to us were just like us, except that they have built floats before and were now advanced to the position of guiding others in float building. All of the people that were going to be building the floats were just like us too, and we looked like a herd of deer in the headlights... I'm not kiddin'.

An example of building a tree on a float was presented to us. A float-builder-in-training asked, "you mean we can just build a tree and put people around and call it good?" A float-builder-of-experience answered, "you can if you don't want to win any awards." Awards. Now there is something to contemplate. In 2001 our stake built a float for this parade and won the Sweepstakes Award, the highest award you can win in the Days of '47 parade. This is what I say about awards... a-ward; yeah I need a-ward, I need every-ward to help me build this float. But I am sure that when July 24th arrives, I will be very excited and actually hope that we win an award. Right now that is the furthest thing from my mind.

We have a place to build the float. We have a wonderful float base. I'm very happy to say that we have a design. It's amazing. I'm excited. It's award worthy. The committee is excited. That makes me excited. I won't reveal any details at this moment, but I do have to tell one thing... me, the-co-chairman-of-the-Days-of-'47-WB-stake-float-that-will-be-featured-on-live-TV, will have a float that has ... BIRDS!!!!