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FARMINGTON — For a Utah mother of three, participating in next week’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is a dream come true.
Kristy Powell will fly out to New York and will get to hold the opening banner for this year’s parade — the 90th year in the parade’s history.
For her though, it will be the end of a six-year journey and 30-year dream that began when she was 7 or 8 years old.
“When I was little, I thought I just want to be in the parade someday. That is my dream. I’m going to be in that parade someday,” Powell said. “I’d watch it every year and I just love it.”
Getting there, though, wasn’t easy. In fact, it required persistence and patience.
It all started about six years ago, when Powell’s curiosity to what she needed to do to get into the parade overcame her and she began what became a long journey. She sought answers from friends on social media and even got in contact with the Salt Lake City Macy’s location.
She found out that Macy’s employees or friends of Macy’s employees of the Herald Square location typically were the ones who were in the parade. So she focused on calling the Macy’s headquarters to find out what she needed to do to participate.
“I called every Tuesday and Thursday for like four months — I talked to a few people a few times, but they were just like ‘no, there’s no way,’” Powell said.
When that didn’t work, she reached out to social media again. A cousin that happened to be living in New York had another potential route. That cousin knew, through a chain of connections, someone that worked in regards to the Macy’s parade.
Flash forward to August 2016.
Even with her doubts, Powell emailed the employee with her story. They responded with a request for her measurements for the wardrobe participants would wear in the parade, but no official word that she’d participate.
It wasn’t until late October that Powell knew that her dream would finally come true, and that included a mad-dash to New York for fitting of the wardrobe and training for the parade.
The parade organizers said if she could make it to New York in two days for those events, she could participate in this year’s parade.
Despite a limited budget, never traveling alone prior and not much time to purchase a plane ticket, Powell said she knew what she had to do.
“I thought, I’ve got to do this,” she said. “I’ve got to make this dream come true. … and within 24 hours, I was on an airplane and flew out to New York City.”
Her time in New York wasn’t long. She landed there, met with Macy’s officials and took a bus to New Jersey for training. There, she got a tour of the parade warehouse, where the giant inflatable balloons and the parade floats are made.
She met other of this year’s performers, including a bus full of clowns. In fact, when others found out that Powell had flown 2,000 miles just to chase her dream, she became the star of the training session. Many lined up to get a photo with the stay-at-home mom from Utah.
“It was just a really awesome experience,” she said, regarding her quick trip.
Now she’s preparing to officially make that dream happen. She’ll fly out again Tuesday for the iconic Thanksgiving extravaganza.
She said the support she’s gotten from her husband, Ben, her three daughters and friends has played a major role in her getting the opportunity she’s dreamed of since she was a kid.
While Powell will finally get her opportunity, she added she hoped her story would send a message to her children to never give up their dreams, noting that her reaching out to others about her dream set her on the path to reaching it.
“It doesn’t matter if you have a crazy dream, like being in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It doesn’t matter — send your dream out into the universe and it will come back to you,” she said. “Even if it’s crazy or silly, put it out there. Let your heart and desire be known because people are willing to help and they’re willing to do what it takes to help you achieve your dream.”
