The Making of a Miracle in the Binding of a Book
 by Larry H. Gardner

Lon Henderson said it best in quoting Jeffrey R. Holland, “Someone once said that a coincidence is a small miracle in which God chooses to remain anonymous". The production and history of the book, “Portraits of Loss, Stories of Hope” is indeed one of those small miracles.

Following City Council on the 13th of January, Lon Henderson called me with a very unique and ambitious undertaking. He had been touched by the incredible stories that had been shared in City Council that showed a county community coming together to deal with a tremendous tragedy in a very inspiring way. He suggested two things. We needed to document this for posterity and secondly, that we should sell it as a fundraiser to aid to the victims. He said,

“Everyone wants to help. I can’t get down in the river with a track-hoe like so many heroes have done or bake like Mrs. Snow who brought the cookies, but I can help raise funds for the victims.”

Further more, he felt like it needed to be done in time to take advantage of the home show crowd.

I said, “Lon, that’s only 30 days away!”

He said he had already spoken with his wife, Carrie, and Lyman Hafen to see if they would be willing to help. In my mind I could see Lyman’s disarming grin and could hear his quiet chuckle of amusement because I’m sure that he was the only one who truly understood the absurdity of the monumental request. But knowing Lyman’s heart, I could also hear the sincerity of his humble and willing response, “I think it might be a minor miracle if we are able to pull this off”.

By Sunday night the conception committee had grown to include Lon, Lyman, and myself, as well as Hal Anderson, Doug Alder, Mary Jo Hafen, Marc Mortenson, Gail Bunker, Carol Sapp, Nic Adams, and Kelli Holmstead. Knowing there were a lot of unknowns about critical pieces of the puzzle that needed to fall into place in order to pull this little miracle off, the bubbly enthusiasm for the project prevailed. We had confidence in Lyman’s and Lon’s leadership to get it done.

On Monday the 17th, we started calling on people with talent and resource. Lyman and I visited with Brent Low at The Spectrum who had already started to look at an independent project. The Spectrum’s roll under Brent’s leadership would become key. We visited with Kelly Nyberg who likewise had already started to collect pictures through Infowest. We called on Brian Tenney and Alan Griffin of Tenney-Clemmons for help with layout and design, a major undertaking. By Tuesday night, the committee had added Lorri Kocinski-Puchlik from the Chamber, Kim Hafen from The Spectrum, and Alan Griffin from Tenney-Clemmons. Also present were Kelly Nyberg, Hal Hilburn, and Bryce Hunt, who again set aside their own interests and volunteered to take on the digital task of producing a companion DVD.

Lon had indicated that their company, Soltis Investment Advisors, would like to help finance the project so that 100% of the proceeds could go to the victims. I approached Village Bank to see if they would also help with the seed money. Doug Bringhurst of Village Bank stepped forward and offered $10,000 for the project. He then approached the three other community banks, State Bank, Far West and SunFirst for matching contributions. Bankers were excited about a project that would net approximately 10 times their investment to help the flood victims.

Wednesday afternoon, President Alder met with 17 interviewers, trained them, and sent them out with a recorder and a stack of tapes.

“One interview per side, capture the heart of their story and move on,” they were instructed.

The committee had already come up with over 100 names of people who could be interviewed and that number quickly grew to over 200. “There wasn’t enough time for life histories here, only unique perspectives and stories.” This was not to be an exhaustive historical work, only a quick capture of the more obvious stories with a more detailed accounting to be left to historians. Ours was a defined purpose of fact finding for financial assistance under an impossible short time line.

The interviewers were complemented with 23 transcribers who also started that very day. As soon as an interview was completed, it was delivered to Gail Bunker who was responsible for all of the transcripts. Gail kept the constant flood of information forwarded to Lyman, who is undoubtedly one of the few capable editors who can reduce and simplify and still capture the “heart” of the story. This was a 24/7 challenge that needed to be completed in 10 days. Lyman then passed his edited material on to Alan Griffin and Brian Tenney who had the task of graphic design and layout. They were being fed the text from Lyman while at the same time Nic Adams was on his own 24/7 schedule of dealing with the digital data from over 5,000 photos that were being sent in from the community. Marc Mortenson, Kelly Nyberg, Hal Hilburn and Bryce Hunt were helping in gathering, sifting and sorting. There were a lot of pictures but the resolution had to be of a quality that could be reproduced. Nic edited the pictures for the book. Hal edited for the DVD. Elaine Alder, Carrie Henderson, and I’m sure others, did all of the proof reading.

Thursday morning, barely two weeks from the first recorded accounts, the finished edited copy was hand delivered by Lon to Paragon Press in Salt Lake who, because of Lyman’s connections, were not only willing to give this project priority but were also willing to do it at cost. They also sought and received donations for the ink and the cover. From a technical perspective, Jamie Airmet was amazed at the quality of the work that had been delivered to him. “This was not a hurried piece of junk. This was good stuff,” he later confessed. Now it was 24/7 for him in printing, binding, drying and delivering. After Lyman spent 3 days in Salt Lake proofing, Jamie’s press ran non stop over the next weekend. He did 17 checks every 3 hours to make sure it could be completed on time. He then personally drove the first 600 copies of this 136 page perfect bound volume 300 miles to St. George and together with Lon, Lyman, and many of the committee, made the presentation to the St. George City Council on February 17th, exactly one month from the day we first started to work on the project. It was to go on sale at the home show the next morning. So many impossibilities were overcome by so many coincidences, yes, so many miracles.

Lyman regretted that there was so much more that could and should have been included but it came after the “magic witching hour.” It will be made available through the archives at Dixie College, along with the other accounts.

Gail Bunker received the first book followed by the City Council. The minimum suggested donation was $35 for the book and companion DVD with hopes that it would generate more. Leon Bowler bought the next 5 books for Dixie REA at $1000/book. First day sales on Friday averaged $107 each, well above the suggested minimum. People saw it as a chance to help. The DVD also had a story of its own. Professional services from Eric Young and the crew at KCSG and last minute deadlines that were met by Hal Hilburn staying up all night for two nights in a row. Music that was provided by Carrie Henderson’s brother, Kurt Bestor, was made available. Once again great help from the production people in California that Kelly Nyberg knew and finally, the same night of the delivery of the book, Kelly and Hal made a midnight run to Rancho Cucamonga, California to get the first 3000 copies.

Mary Jo Hafen and Lorri Kocinski-Puchlik and The Spectrum employees under the direction of Brent Low, Kim Hafen, and Dave Hawks then took on the challenge of distribution. Knowing that there was going to be a limited number of books, some people stood in line for 4 hours at Lin’s, hopeful of being able to secure their copy. Jill Ence and Carol Sapp coordinated the efforts of another army of volunteers who manned 7 locations with volunteers for 10 days. Russ Clove helped to distribute to the motels, and Lorri Kocinski-Puchlik and I took the retail and banks. Thousands of donated hours, all for the common cause of helping raise money for the victims.

Hal Anderson and Ken Hinton, a very capable CPA, were over the collection and care of the funds that were generated and John Clemmons at Learn Key was willing to do the fulfillment of the orders that had come in via the internet.

Lyman and I were musing over the miracle over a hamburger and I asked him what his most significant observation had been. One, he said, was the renewal of this great sense of community that we call the Dixie Spirit. Some used to say, according to Karl Brooks, that you weren’t a native unless your “Grandpa had worked on the ditch.” There was just some unifying spirit that had come from the sacred sacrifice and edifying efforts of the total pioneer population sharing in survival that not only bound them together but also was somehow genetically passed on to their descendants. In Lyman’s eyes, the event of January 10th -13th allowed everyone who had come to the county “post pioneers” to be bound together in the same way. They had finally sipped of the “Spirit of Dixie” giving birth to a new generation of Dixieans. By way of the mud, many new residents had gotten “red sand in their shoes.” Because of the heroic efforts of so many, thousands more now have a sense of community and a sense of inclusion that reminds us that we live in a pretty special place filled with even better people.

On Monday the 28th of February, the committee met for the last time. One month and two weeks from day one and our purpose had been complete. All but a few of the 10,000 copies had been sold.

Lorri Kocinski-Puchlik shared a quote from Wallace Stegner that captured some of this referred to sense of place. He writes, “Knowing a place involves the senses, the memory, the history of a family or a tribe. Knowing a place comes from working in it in all weathers, making a living from it, suffering from its catastrophes, loving its mornings or evenings or hot noons.”

Indeed, the most coincidental miracle of the flood is that we all now have a renewed sense of place referred to by Lyman and Stegner. We have been bound together by a common catastrophe and now by the binding of a book. For those who helped in some way to “provide for their relief,” the cords that bind us are even stronger. We now know what it means to be “from Dixie.”
 

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