Midway resident Garrett Watts was in a meeting a warzone away in Poltava, Ukraine when a familiar scene unfolded in front of him.
“The people of Ukraine are so loving and resilient. When we met with them, they said, ‘We’re so grateful you came all this way and we just wanted to show a video to express our gratitude.’ And so they started playing the video–it’s all in Ukrainian and I don't speak any Ukrainian. And then one of the pictures on the video is the backside of Mount Timpanogos. If you've been boating on Deer Creek Reservoir, it's that picture. And I was like, ‘What in the world?’”
In Oct. 2023, the 24-year-old Brigham Young University student was an intern for the Utah Aerospace and Defense Association when he was invited to join an international delegation focused on aerospace and defense initiatives. Their mission was to help supply Ukraine with the necessary materials to support their defense and humanitarian efforts.
One day, they visited Poltava to inspect power generators installed at a school and a hospital. The video highlighted those generators that were crucial for maintaining essential services during frequent power outages caused by drone strikes.
“I'm just watching and getting kind of emotional about it," he said. "It was just one of those small world things. I had by no means gone into this thinking my hometown had something to do with what was going on literally half the world away.”
The funds to purchase those generators were from Swiss Days, a popular Labor Day weekend festival in Midway. Half of the proceeds go to the Midway Boosters for town beautification and scholarships and the other half goes to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ humanitarian fund. According to its website, the church engaged in 4,119 humanitarian projects in 191 countries and territories, with 6.2 million hours of volunteer work and $1.36 billion in expenditures in 2023.
Last year, Swiss Days organizers worked with the church and the Utah-based nonprofit August Mission, which has been focused on providing humanitarian aid in Ukraine, to direct the funds to the generator project.
David Nielson is a local church leader who moved to Midway in 1973. He said back then, Swiss Days was a local affair where a dozen teenagers caught a greased pig and climbed a greased pole, followed by a small community gathering. As the event grew the boosters sought help from the church for planning and execution.
Today, Swiss Days hosts 100,000 attendees and is run almost entirely by thousands of volunteers.
“But it really is a civic event, and all are invited to participate and help," said Nielson. "As we've had more friends of other faiths move into the community, we've been blessed and grateful to have their help. So even though the organization of labor is spearheaded by the religious organizations of our church, it’s an invitation for all faiths–or no faith–to come together and work for good causes.”
Watts’ family has volunteered at Swiss Days for many years. Last year, they were in the throes of a stressful move so he told his mom it was OK to skip out, but she was insistent upon following through on her commitment.
“And so watching that video and hearing the story, I thought, ‘Oh no. I was giving my mom a hard time for helping out with Swiss Days. These people in the Ukraine are super grateful for all this bread that she baked,’ he joked. "But it was just a really tender moment because we don't always see the end result of the efforts of the service that we give, but it's always used in some greater way.”
Watts hopes his story inspires others to support humanitarian causes and believes that each person’s efforts matter and can reach further than they expect. The allocation of funds for this year’s festival has yet to be announced but rest assured, that “greater way” will surely benefit the lives of people both locally and abroad.
