SANDY, Utah — Strike up the band! Finish the floats! Everyone loves a parade!

So much so that thousands come here to Sandy to get a sneak peek of the Days of ’47 floats. But we came for an entirely different reason.

Keith Tripp is a longtime Days of ’47 Parade volunteer. Thirty-eight years he’s given his time and talent to this parade.

“Hours? I don’t think I could even count for Keith because of the difficulty of what he does,” says Kathi Izatt, who’s on the Board of Trustees for the Days of ’47.

Keith is responsible for every single horse entry you see in the parade — and that is not an easy job.

“The horses, he may have explained, are hard to come by. We have plenty of wagons but getting teams to pull them is a really big task,” Kathi says.

And it all falls to him.

“He loves it. It is his heart and soul when it comes to bringing these wagons in and see the history,” says Lori Fox, Keith’s daughter.

We wanted to recognized Keith’s hard work with a KSL High 5 and a $200 gift card from America First Credit Union.

“We want to recognize individuals like you that do such amazing things for the community.”

Keith’s job of getting the horse entries is a monumental task. Times have changed; it’s expensive to bring in the horses, groom them and get them in tip-top shape.

Yet, there are 20 horse entries this year.

“Enticing them to come is a very difficult thing. Because of his charm, he’s able to do that,” Kathi says.

Besides Keith’s love of horses, there is something else that keeps him coming back.

“He loves. It is his heart and soul when it comes to bringing these wagons in and see the history,” Lori says.

“I say I’m going to quit,” Keith says. “They say, ‘You can’t quit, Grandpa, we have too much fun.'”