Ethan Kafton of Brigham City sells his origami at a local grocery store wearing his cupid costume on Friday, Feb. 11, 2022.
BRIGHAM CITY – Cupid is on the loose in Brigham City dressed in his love-sharing attire and spreading sunshine, as well as happiness everywhere he goes.
Thirty-one-year-old Ethan Kafton looks like a young teenager, but if there was ever a celebrity or personality the downtown merchants know and love Kafton would be the guy.
From the beginning of business, Kafton makes his rounds from one business to the next brightening their day. During the latter part of January and until Valentine’s Day Ethan dresses up in his cupid outfit red shirt, white wings, a bow and a quiver with a single arrow with heart for an arrowhead.
Ethan smiles and chats going to the different businesses in downtown and gives everyone a lift. If the music hits him just right, he starts to sway to the beat.
Most of the year he is known for wearing his Superman outfit.
Kelly Driscoll, owner of Drews Floral and Gifts in downtown Brigham City, said Ethan comes in the shop daily just after they open.
“You can count on the bell on the front door ringing at 9:01 and Ethan comes into the store,” Driscoll said. “He greets and calls me his ‘brotha,’ the female designers he calls ‘sistas’ and when he leaves it’s ‘ciao!’”
Driscoll has a stash of Mountain Dew Red on hand at his store for Ethan.
“He calls Mountain Dew Red his life blood,” Driscoll said. “He also frequents other stores in Brigham City. He goes to Idle Isle Café, Three Goats Gruff, Monarch Tea Shop, Consignology, the new Sugar Mamas Creperie and anywhere else he can get in. I’ll bet he walks 20,000 to 30,000 steps a day.”
When Ethan steps into any store, clerks warmly greet him. He always has a smile on his face and if he likes the music over the stores sound system he does his Ethan shuffle. His claim to fame in his hometown is his origami. When he was at Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City going through cancer treatments a nurse taught him how to fold cranes from paper.
“He’s phenomenal at folding origami and sells it at my store on the third Friday night of each month,” Driscoll said. “He sells more paper roses than I sell real roses.”
Ethan is folding origami now for his Easter and Thanksgiving inventory. He helps teach seminary after school to special needs children for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and serves as the Sargent of Arms of the local Kiwanis Club.
He sets up a table at various locations in town to sell his origami. On Friday mornings he sets up shop at Kent’s Market for an hour or two. A lot of people stop and talk to him, and a fair share even buy some of his folded paper products.
David Kafton, Ethan’s father, said when Ethan was 10-years old they discovered he had a tumor in his brain.
“The type of tumor was common, but the place in the brain was uncommon,” David said. “It was so rare they only had one person in the world that had one like it that they knew of.”
When they first diagnosed him, the doctors thought Ethan had an aneurism. When they got ready to operate the surgeon decided to take a second look and that’s when they discovered he had a mass in his brain.
“The tumor was deep inside the brain and after they took out the tumor he couldn’t move anything,” David said. “It was touch and go. He wasn’t supposed to walk or talk, but in the end, he just lost the use of his right side.”
Ethan wears a brace on his right hand and had to learn how to do everything with his left hand.
When a nurse at Primary Children’s Hospital taught him how to do origami. He started by folding cranes with only his left hand. In fact, they told him the story about a girl with cancer and her goal to fold 1,000 cranes. She didn’t quite get her 1,000 cranes finished before she passed.
Another thing happened at the hospital that changed his life.
“If something like that happens to someone it can either make them bitter and they have a pity party, or it brings out the best in them,” David said. “It brought put the best in Ethan. I went in to check on him one day and he wasn’t in his room, I panicked.”
When he asked the nurse where his son was, she told him he was making his rounds.
“The nurse said every day he gets up and visits every kid in every room to cheer them up,” David said. “That’s the kind of kid he is. I think his mission in life is to cheer people up.”
And still goes from store to store in historic downtown Brigham City spreading sunshine and happiness everywhere he goes.