Days of '47 Youth Parade

Our highlight this week was the Days of 47 Youth Parade. For those of you that are non-Utahns, the Days of '47 is a state holiday. 1847 is the year the Mormon pioneers first settled in the Salt Lake Valley, my own ancestors being part of those first companies. Also known as Pioneer Day, the 24th of July holiday is as big (if not bigger) then the 4th of July.

This year, our stake (a stake is a unit of local congregations. Our stake has 8 congregations or "wards" in it.) was invited to enter a float in the Days of '47 Youth Parade. Being the president of the primary in our ward, it fell on me to do our part for the parade entry. So for the last week I've been sitting on the garage floor cutting out rain dropped shapes out of cardboard. 42 in all.

Ruth and Jared and I lined up to walk in the parade Saturday morning. Chuck and Chaz and Kaitlin were spectators. Jared decided at the last minute that he didn't want to be in the parade either, so he also became a spectator. It was good to have a few spectators because most of the 1/2 mile parade rout was empty. I guess you only go to the Youth Parade if you have a child that is walking in it. Which explains why we have never before attended.

The parade was on TV but because we were the 3rd to last entry, we didn't get much coverage. Our TV coverage amounted to the helicopter flying over and the commentator saying something like "oh my, that is a huge group of kids!" (we were told that we were the largest entry ever in the parade).

After the parade we went to the Youth Festival. It had free crafts and slides and booths. The kids had fun. Here is a picture of Chaz and Kaitlin pulling a handcart. This Stormtrooper was in the way so Kaitlin said "Get of my way! I'm pulling a handcart here!" which was very brave, considering the Stormtrooper had a big gun. Talk about a clash of cultures!

Post Script: So I can see that you can't see the words on the video very well. Sorry about that. Our group is the one carrying raindrops. Ruth was carrying our banner. She was the 2nd from the right at frame 35. Becky is walking right behind the banner carriers, supervising. You can see Becky wave at frame 40.