Festival of Trees includes roadster

This year's 39th annual Festival of Trees will include a shiny new silver addition that could serve as Santa's sleigh (if his bag were fairly small), rather than as the traditional Christmas decor.

Festival organizers gathered outside Primary Children's Medical Center on Tuesday morning, hoping to build excitement for the yearly festival as they unveiled a custom-built, aluminum-body sports car, courtesy of Kirkham Motorsports in Provo.

David Kirkham, whose company provided the vehicle for the upcoming charity auction, said 22 years ago "I was laying in a hospital bed staring at an IV line." He said that over the years, the company has donated cars to causes "dear to our hearts," and as he remembered his own hospital days recently, he wondered if the company could do something to help.

The spit-shined roadster sat next to the hospital's north entrance, covered from the morning chill until festival organizers and Kirkham representatives joined young Marshall Lindsay in pulling the cover from the car, to the oohhs and aahhs of spectators.

Lindsay, age 13, is this year's young festival ambassador and will speak at the festival's gala opening night on Tuesday, Dec. 1. He tugged at the canvas cover from a wheelchair, which he's using to get around since an ATV accident at the sand dunes on Sept. 12 broke his back and injured his spinal cord.

Once the extent of his injuries became clear, he was airlifted to Primary Children's Medical Center, where doctors used eight screws, two rods and donated bone to help repair his broken body. "I was pretty afraid when they first brought me here, not being able to feel or use my legs."

Lindsay spent 31 days in the hospital and said he never appreciated wheels as much as he does since the accident, because he hasn't yet been able to walk. With continued therapy, he hopes to take his first steps by March.

He said his time at the hospital was made easier by the kindness of doctors and nurses, who kept his spirits up when it became obvious that he couldn't simply resume his normal activities.

His mother, Julie Lindsay, said one of the family's younger children had surgery a few years ago at Primary Children's and they were happy with their experience, so when medical personnel asked where they should transport Marshall, it was a simple choice.

She and her husband, Adam, were reassured by the medical staff that they would do everything they could to help their son, she said. "They taught him how to be the new Marshall, with everything from tying his shoes again to doing wheelies," in the wheelchair.