The abduction of Elizabeth Smart was one of the most followed child abduction cases of our time.
She endured a 9-month ordeal after being abducted from her home in the middle of the night in June, 2002, at age fourteen. She has become an advocate for change related to child abduction, recovery programs and national legislation and is founder of the Elizabeth Smart Foundation.
She writes "too many families experience the nightmare of having a child go missing. I know what it is like to be that child. I know what it is like to think that one false move may lead to not only your own death but the death of family members as well. Nobody can ever blame a child for their actions when they are being threatened, bullied, forced, or coerced into doing something unthinkable. That is why the "Elizabeth Smart Foundation" was created, because what if we could prevent future crimes against children? Wouldn't it be worth it to do everything to bring home that one child? What if you were that one child? Or what if it was you who helped prevent/bring home that one child?"
Elizabeth Smart has chronicled her experiences in the New York Times best-selling book, "My Story." She is the keynote speaker at The United Way of Cache Valley's annual dinner and gala on Saturday in Logan and she joins us for the first half of Tuesday's Access Utah.
In the second half we'll talk with Steve Daley, Director of radKIDS, one of the Elizabeth Smart Foundation's partner programs. radKIDS is "a not-for-profit educational organization dedicated to providing realistic choices and options to children and parents concerning their overall safety in the world today. It is [their] mission to provide, through education, realistic choices for children to avoid and/or escape violence or harm in their daily lives."
