SALT LAKE CITY — This year the White House’s Holiday theme is ‘The magic, wonder and joy of the holidays’ and one Utah professor had the opportunity to make the wonderland come alive.
In August, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden put out a call for volunteers to help her decorate the white house for the holidays, a yearly tradition for the Biden administration.
“Last December I saw on the First Lady's Instagram that she had posted about volunteers that had helped, said Farah Sanders, a public relations professor at Utah Valley University. “So I reached out in January and asked how that process happens.”
Sanders explained the application included a questionnaire about each individual applying and information about any design experience that they had.
“I think it's important for people to know, you do pay your own way, this is all volunteer, they do feed you when you are working in that White House,” she explained.
Two individuals from each state were selected. They came from all kinds of professions.
Sanders’s background made her the perfect fit for the job.
She and her husband own a Flower farm called Huckleberry Lane Farm, where they grow flowers and do floral work.
“So I think what really helped is my eye for being able to put things together in terms of I'm often putting greens together and what not," Sanders reflected. "I helped build the garland that sits over the mantel that is in the State Dining Room.”
The project began on the week of Thanksgiving and lasted for ten days. During the experience, Sanders and her husband also got to meet the First Lady when she presented this year’s theme to the press.
“She was so thankful for the work that we did," Sanders reflected. "She expressed that over and over to the volunteers. So that was a big highlight.”
But the lasting impact of the experience for Sanders was more than just creating decorations for the White House and meeting the First Lady.
“So many people were able to come together that were from all different walks of life, had lots of different belief systems, lots of different diversities,” Sanders said. “And we worked together. And I never ever saw anything negative. Everything was positive. Everyone was there to work for a common cause.”
