“Just Do It!”

May 24, 2024 · by Editor

Claudia Bushman once said of the activities in which she and her Boston LDS contemporaries engaged, including creating a guidebook, guest-editing an issue of Dialogue, and starting a newspaper called Exponent II:

“Nobody asked us. Nobody invited us. Nobody really encouraged us. We just did things.”

I lived in the Bushmans’ ward for a while, and I noticed that doing things — doing projects, as she always called them — was a leitmotif for Claudia. Thanks to an invitation from her, I got looped into one of the more unexpected projects of my life.

It was 2004 and we were dedicating a temple in Manhattan, a temple carved out of the high rise in which our chapel sat. This was the start of the era of youth temple jubilees and ours was to be one of the first — so early on that most of us had never heard of them before. When word got out that we were going to have 2,400 LDS youth on stage at the iconic Radio City Music Hall (not all at the same time), even my bishop said incredulously, “Is our ward involved in this?”

Indeed, our youth were involved — and so was I, as a recruit. Several weeks before the event itself some of us had the opportunity to tour Radio City so that we could figure out the logistics involved. Our visit was scheduled for the Monday morning after the Tony Awards, and when we arrived, the theater’s house was loud and lively with workers busy dismantling all the glitz and trappings from the night before.

We gazed, something akin to awestruck, at the hum of activity and then Claudia said, “That was a wonderful event last night. We want you to do exactly the same thing for us!”

Our guide smirked and said, “Do you have $900,000?”

That threw a brick into the middle of the conversation. We all stopped talking, stopped gazing at our surroundings, and looked at Claudia. Looked to Claudia, really.

“What is our budget for this?” someone finally said.

To which Claudia responded:

“We don’t have one. We’re just doing it and hoping it all works out.”

Work it out we did, beyond anybody’s expectations. Covered wagons! Chinese dragons! Broadway show tunes! President Hinckley nodded his head and clapped in time to a lively square dance! “Teach Me to Walk in the Light” accompanied by bongo drums, while 2,400 pinpricks of light (distributed earlier that day in the form of tiny LED flashlights) winked on throughout the darkened theater. That moment when President Hinckley appeared on the screens mounted over the stage and the kids, realizing where he sat in the theater, stood, turned, and, in a moment of pure spontaneity, lifted their lights toward him. 

Other people have written about their experiences that day and so I won’t add any more here. I will simply say this: Nike turned “Just do it” into a tagline.

But I bet Claudia said it first. 

And each time I open my mailbox to find the latest edition of Exponent II waiting there, I am struck anew by the ambition, innovation, persistence, and sheer camaraderie that is not only fused into the creation of this organization, but which still abounds in its pages today.

Frequent contributor Naomi works at Oregon State University, where she loves the farmers market, the hiking trails, and breathing the fresh air every day.

Corvallis, Orego

Categories: Shout Outs

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