Years ago, only a handful of people played parts in the LDS Special Mutual's annual production.
Now the program, presented by mentally handicapped members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has more than 60 roles.Davis County's group will present their annual production "Memories and Miracles" May 1 and 2. The program begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Woods Cross Regional Center (formerly Valley Music Hall), 835 N. 400 East. Admission is free.
The event's growth symbolizes how the Special Mutual has influenced the lives of hundreds of individuals along the Wasatch Front, according to Betty Holmes, who helped organize the program 20 years ago.
Holmes's first daughter, Judy, was born with Down's syndrome in 1950. In those days, few if any organizations existed to help handicapped persons, she said.
"The doctors wouldn't let us bring Judy home. They told us to forget about her and go on with our lives," Holmes recalled. "We went three years before we even found another person with a handicap."
But she and other families persevered through years of ignorance about mental handicaps, finally convincing Davis County officials to organize a school for their kids. That success led to others, and soon followed the Special Mutual.
Nine students and their parents attended the Mutual's first meeting March 1, 1972. Since then, the group's activities have changed many lives for the better, Holmes said.
Youth camps, for example, gave kids the first chance they'd had to spend a night away from home and take risks they usually didn't.
"One of our first camps for young women was at Sundance. We planned a hike, but some of the girls really fought going, until one of them said we were hiking to a waterfall that poured pink lemonade," Holmes said. "When we got to the waterfall, she held a pitcher under the fall and then slipped some lemonade mix into the water."
Dinner dances taught participants etiquette and projects geared to serving others reinforced the need for generosity, she said.
The Special Mutual now has hundreds of members along the Wasatch Front, including many who aren't members of the LDS Church.