COURTENAY -- His ambition is to spread happiness to others, and these days John Ludlow is doing it using his 1966 Ford Mustang as a rolling Christmas display.
The Comox Valley man has placed a festively decorated kayak on top of his vintage vehicle and is driving it along city streets to the delight of those he passes.
"I quite often will have my Bluetooth speakers in the kayak and I play Christmas music blaring out of the kayak,” Ludlow says. “The other day I drove downtown Courtenay and I literally had people in the streets dancing to Christmas music.”
Aside from the kayak, everything in the display was either donated or bartered through the donation of his time. At the centre of the piece is “Mustang Sally,” a character he's fashioned out of old pieces of scrap. This month he's calling her “Mustang Santa.”
"Mustang Santa's got a Santa suit on, Santa hat, Santa sack behind, all the other reindeer and Rudolph's nose lights up," he says.
Sally's eyes are also brightly illuminated.
"I rigged it so if you give Mustang Sally a wave, she'll wink at you,” he says. “I call it like an interactive sculpture.”
His efforts bring attention to his “Comox Valley Social Experiment” Facebook page.
"I've got really young people, really old people and everything in between, including politicians,” he says. “It's a site all about sharing the stories of love and kindness and paying it forward and meeting like-minded people."
His rolling display has not only been catching the attention of those he passes but also the people at Ford, makers of the Mustang.
"I have now gotten an email from the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan,” Ludlow says. “They want this car, Mustang Santa or Mustang Sally, and the kayak in an exhibit next summer, placed right next to the very first Mustang ever produced.”
He's considering the request and says it would be a great honour.
