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SEPTEMBER 2026 VOL. 4 / NO. 14

Utah Gives

How 100 Women Who Care is changing lives in Beehive State

A pioneering innovation drives the Relief Society’s $100 million humanitarian campaign

Most ranchers’ kids don’t want the job. These young people are lining up for it New Agrarian Program matches young people with mentors running regenerative ranches across the West

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DESERET NEWS | SEPTEMBER 2026

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Fall Into Action: Tackle Cancer Screenings This Season Fall is more than football and pumpkin spice – it’s time for men and women to prioritize their health. As September spotlights Prostate Cancer Awareness and October approaches with Breast Cancer Awareness, our local medical experts are issuing a direct call to our community. This is your cue: men, actively engage with your prostate health; women, prioritize your breast health. Early detection is the most powerful tool you have to protect your life and your loved ones. The statistics are sobering. For men, prostate cancer is the most diagnosed cancer, and tragically, it stands as the second leading cause of cancer death, surpassed only by lung cancer. Similarly, for women, breast cancer is a significant threat, also ranking as the second leading cause of cancer death, second only to lung cancer. These aren’t just abstract figures; they represent real individuals whose lives can be profoundly impacted by timely action. “Too often, men delay necessary screenings,” explains Dr. Pursifull, a urologist at Holy Cross Hospital – Moun-

tain Point in Lehi. “But waiting for symptoms to appear significantly reduces treatment options. Regular PSA blood tests and digital rectal exams are straightforward procedures that detect cancer early. Talk to your primary care physician about your risk factors, especially if you have a family history or are of African American descent. CommonSpirit hospitals offer comprehensive prostate cancer screenings and advanced treatment options.” For women, prioritizing breast health is equally critical. “Early detection is truly a game- changer when it comes to breast cancer,” states Dr. Raylene Natwick, a breast surgeon practicing at a Holy Cross Hospital – Jordan Valley. “When breast cancer is identified early, the chances of successful treatment and a full recovery are remarkably higher. This is precisely why regular mammograms are so vital. They can detect subtle changes years before they would ever be palpable.” Dr. Natwick advises women to discuss screening guidelines starting around age 40, or earlier if risk factors warrant it. Monthly self-examinations and annual clinical breast exams are

also crucial. “CommonSpirit hospitals are equipped with state-of-the-art mammography technology and a dedicated team ready to support women.” “As primary care providers, we are frequently the entry portal to the health care system.” said Dr. Grant Hawkins, an internal medicine physician with CommonSpirit in West Jordan. We encourage our patients to have their yearly wellness checkups. At that time we have the opportunity to review medical issues, make medication adjustments, discuss new concerns and arrange for screening tests that are so important in preventing serious problems in the future.” This Fall, make the decision to prioritize your health. Both prostate and breast cancer often have excellent prognoses when caught early. CommonSpirit hospitals are committed to providing accessible screenings, expert diagnostics, and leading-edge treatments. Schedule your screenings and engage in crucial conversations with your doctor. Your life, your future, and your well-being depend on it.

When minutes count, count on our emergency care. Get to know us before you need us. When you need emergency care fast, the closest emergency room is a smart thing to know. You never know the level of care you’ll need when an emergency happens and choosing the right ER can make all the difference. And a hospital ER comes with the confidence of additional services right on-site. Find emergency care close to you at mountain.commonspirit.org.

CommonSpirit Health Mountain Region does not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, age, sex, religion, creed, ancestry, sexual orientation, and marital status in admission, treatment, or participation in its programs, services and activities, or in employment. For further information about this policy contact CommonSpirit Health Mountain Region Office of the General Counsel at 1-303-643-1000 (TTY: 711). Copyright © CommonSpirit Health Mountain Region, 2026. ATENCIÓN: Si habla español, tiene a su disposición servicios gratuitos de asistencia lingüística. Llame al 1-303-643-1000 (TTY: 711). CHÚ Ý: Nếu bạn nói Tiếng Việt, có các dịch vụ hỗ trợ ngôn ngữ miễn phí dành cho bạn. Gọi số 1-303-643-1000 (TTY: 711).

DESERET NEWS | SEPTEMBER 2026

DESERET NEWS

Most ranchers’ kids don’t want the job. These young people are lining up for it New Agrarian Program matches young people with mentors running regenerative ranches across the West By Kevin Lind

Deseret News

Chrissy McFarren worries about the future of American ranching. She points to the challenges of the business model, where ranches often run a meager 1%-2% profit margin. There’re also the headwinds of partisan politics, rising costs, new technology, drought and a changing planet. When all of that’s combined with the average age of the American rancher pushing 60, she thinks many will be forced to sell and that in the coming years millions of acres of land will change hands. Not because they want to, necessarily, but rather because there are not too many kids interested in the yoke of that inheritance. “The truth is that most ranchers’ children don’t want to step in to take on the ranch. Why would they?” McFarren said. “Because they’re like, ‘You work 24/7 for nothing.’” It’s a calculus McFarren has encountered herself. She’s a first-generation rancher and owns Badger Creek Ranch bordering Park and Fremont counties in Colorado. She chose this lifestyle that she worries about, the one she loves. But considering the challenges, she doesn’t like the uncertainty such potential land transfers spell for America’s landscapes nor its food security. “We’ve just got a huge issue on our hands.” That story, though, is not at all doom and gloom, she said. In fact, it has “a positive spin” or a potential silver lining. McFarren knows a path forward because she has been on it for about a decade now. It’s full of people interested in becoming the next generation of ranchers. McFarren is a mentor in the New Agrarian Program. She’s one of scores of ranchers across the West who are teaching ambitious and aspiring ranchers — who did not necessarily grow up in agriculture — how to ranch in a holistic, sustainable way. It’s one of several core offerings of the Santa Fe-based Quivira Coalition, an organization dedicated to finding common ground between conservation, ranching and agriculture so that regenerative practices are a key component of American food systems. The New Agrarian Program, or NAP, is an apprenticeship designed for a younger generation that is both interested in ranching and worried about the state of the planet. And the vast majority of

American young people are worried: only 9% of American youth said they’re not at all concerned about climate change. For eight to 10 months, apprentices work alongside ranchers, learning how to produce food for their communities while stewarding their land for the benefit of generations well into the future. The program is creating a pipeline of people eager to bear that yoke. “I got into agriculture for more selfish reasons: I liked being around animals, I liked being outside, I liked working hard, and I like the people,” said Jordyn Ludeman, 24, McFarren’s current apprentice — one of eight men and 14 women placed across western ranches this year — and a second year New Agrarian. “But I also do care about the regenerative aspect because I want the life to continue. I want agriculture to continue indefinitely so that I get to enjoy the experience of being in agriculture, and then also because we need food to eat. So making sure that we can still produce food with our land is pretty stinking important.”

‘How can we do a better job?’

Julie Sullivan and her husband, George Whitten, founded the NAP in 2008. How they met years prior, however, is the wellspring of the program. Despite being a voracious champion for ranching today, Sullivan hails from Southern California and is “several generations out from any kind of agricultural background.” Prior to Quivira and the NAP, she was a professor of environmental education at the since-closed Audubon Expedition Institute of Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where students traveled around and lived outside for the entire duration of the program. One of the lessons she long sought to impart on her students is that any conflicts between environmentalism and agriculture were surface level, and that the two had common values and goals. It was an idea that Whitten exemplified, so much so that a book was written about his family’s efforts called “The Last Ranch.” So, Sullivan brought her students to see what he was up to. Whitten is a third-generation rancher from the

Isaac Hale, Deseret News Jordyn Ludeman, left, a second-year regenerative agriculture apprentice with Quivira Coalition, and Maddy Pollack, a first-year regenerative agriculture apprentice with Badger Creek Ranch, drive cattle belonging to neighbor Brady Everett from one pasture to another near Badger Creek Ranch in northwestern Fremont County, Colo., on July 14.

San Luis Valley of Colorado and, after meeting Allan Savory in the 1980s, became an early adopter of his “holistic management” movement. Savory was the Zimbabwean rancher and ecologist who popularized the idea of leveraging the symbiotic relationship between grazers and grasslands to stop the desertification of landscapes. When done “holistically,” he showed how the animals can help save those ecosystems. The Savory Institute has now trained more than 35,000 people across 47 international hubs, and contributed to the transformation of 102,442,319 acres around the world. “I had been a vegetarian for 25 years,” Sullivan said. “I thought cattle were always bad — environmentalist, you know? An uppity feminist from

California and drove in off the highway, and met this rancher ... ” Six months later, Sullivan and Whitten were married and working together to practice holistic agriculture. When they hosted folks at the ranch, Sullivan recalled, Whitten said that he liked sharing the questions he had about ranching, if not the answers. “How can we do a better job of caring for working landscapes? How can we build coalition between the conservation or environmental movement, which also loves the land, and the ranching community, which also loves the land? And rather than feeling like one another are enemies, how can we actually look for ways in which we can be mutually supportive?” Sullivan said.

DESERET NEWS | SEPTEMBER 2026

How the program came together

In 2008 there was a concern about feeding the world’s population, which was then close to 7 billion people. Buried within that concern, Sullivan said, was a recognition that there were ways for people who didn’t grow up in agriculture to get a farming job — work weeding carrots was pretty easy to find. But without experience, it was nearly impossible to get a ranching job. Livestock operators do not hire a lot, and when they do, they look for experienced hands. “Where was the doorway in for this increasing number of young people who felt like the difference they wanted to make in the world was on a sort of larger landscape scale?” Sullivan said. There were ambitious people coming to agriculture from a conservation background who recognized that ranching could be the solution to desertification, to prevent urban sprawl and the loss of agricultural land in the West, she said. But they had nowhere to go. “Like really sort of recognizing again that this polarization between the environment and agriculture,” Sullivan said, “was not leading us to a better West. It was kind of leading us against that.” Sullivan and Whitten started the New Agrarian Program in partnership with Quivira, whose core mission includes addressing that perceived distinction between environmentalists and ranching. The NAP is a practical effort to show the next generation of ranchers that the two ideas go hand-in-hand. The first year, 2009, they ran the program on Whitten’s and Sullivan’s ranch. Today there are over 20 mentor ranches, with apprentices placed in New Mexico, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Texas, Montana, Idaho and Colorado. “These are mentor sites that range from really, really large cattle operations, which (have) hundreds and hundreds of heads of animals, to some with residential herds, some that are basically stocker operations — horseback all the time dealing with grizzly bears and wolves — selling into the conventional market, to people who’ve designed really robust direct marketing and are really involved in regional food

systems,” Sullivan said. “Our mentors are really diverse, but they all have to have a commitment to regenerative practices ... because the young people who come to our program want to work on regenerative operations. They don’t want to work on operations which are solely commercial.” This year’s 22 apprentices add to the 170 “alumni” who have participated in the program. Most, Sullivan said, have stayed in production or agriculture-adjacent careers. “I think letting the ranching community and the land-owning community know that there is an incoming generation that is looking for opportunity, desperately wants opportunity” is extremely important, Sullivan said. “They’re highly motivated and they need help finding their opportunity.”

The New Agrarians

Ludeman loves a moment that occurs when she’s moving polywire, the thin lightweight electric fence that allows ranchers to be specific about which parts of the range their cattle graze. It’s a key component of rotational grazing, a primary effort of regenerative agriculture. “When you open the gate and (the cattle) run through and they put their heads down and they start munching and you can hear them all chewing, all at once,” she said. “You can just feel the happiness radiating off of the animals.” Such work is now part of her day-to-day life as an apprentice. Neither Ludeman nor Maddy Pollack, 24, another of McFarren’s apprentices this year, were raised in agriculture, yet both found a way to Badger Creek to learn how to ranch. Ludeman grew up in Petaluma, California, surrounded by the dairies, ranches and vineyards of Sonoma County, but hers was not an agriculture family. Her father’s side hails from a small town in the Russian River Valley and so she was drawn early to rural culture, finding friends who also liked country music, dirt bikes and fishing. Despite starting college as an engineering major, she graduated

with a bachelor’s in dairy science. But after an internship in Wyoming, she felt much happier in the open range of beef cattle ranching than the dairies. Through word of mouth, she heard about Quivira and then the NAP. “When I was younger, I cared — I still care — a lot about the environment and was worried about climate change. Then I went to college and I loved agriculture and I fell in love with working with cows. And so I really liked that overlap between those two parts of myself,” Ludeman said. But in her college experience, she found that the people who cared about conventional agriculture and those that cared about the environment were mostly separate. “And so I really, really enjoyed that Quivira brought those two groups of people together,” she said, “and everybody cares about both of those things.” Pollack is not an official New Agrarian Program apprentice as she was hired directly to Badger Creek. But once she became aware of the program, she went out of her way to learn from McFarren. Her connection to agriculture is even less direct than Ludeman’s. Though she lived some of her life in rural Texas and rode horses — English-style show horses — she followed what she called a more traditional path. After graduating from a master’s program this past May, she was working an unfulfilling job in a law office. That’s when she came across the NAP. Intimidated by how competitive it is — McFarren had 40 applicants apply for her one or two slots at the ranch this year — she reached out directly to McFarren. “As a young person, I’m concerned about climate change and the future of our landscape and working lands. So, I was really drawn to Chrissy being a regenerative rancher. I don’t know if I would have been drawn to working for a traditional rancher,” Pollack said. CONTINUES ON PG. 6

DESERET NEWS | SEPTEMBER 2026

“I felt like the best use of my time was to do this kind of work that is focused on future generations, and it’s not so much focused on instant gratification. That’s really attractive to me, just as far as the values I’d want to lead my life with.”

Regenerative agriculture

McFarren, herself, found the program through Quivira’s annual REGENERATE conference. She said those several-day meetings were like “drinking at the well of regenerative agriculture.” Some of its methods are widely adopted such as rotational grazing, where grazers are moved systemically to prevent desertification of landscapes. Others, like the use of non-monoculture crop feeds, are less so. There are those, too, like prioritizing soil health, that are recognized tenets for those familiar with organic farming. Rather than a series of rules, per se, regenerative agriculture is better understood as a method of approach that foregrounds the shared, interactive ecology of a landscape over pure, commercial production. “A lot of ranchers do regenerative practices, but just don’t call it that. The things we do, like rotational grazing, have been around for hundreds or thousands of years,” said Pollack. “I don’t think there’s any ranchers that have a motivation to destroy working lands, because it’s their livelihood and their lifestyle. And I think that every person working in agriculture cares about sustainability and being able to sustain our lands for use for generations in the future.” But making the kind of deliberate decisions McFarren does about her ranch — and sticking with them — is very different from industrial-scale factory farming, which is quite common in America. Still, most of the work that Ludeman and Pollack do every day still looks like regular old ranching. They wake early to feed the chickens, sheep, horses and cattle, mend fences or transport water. They also move the stock and, of course, tackle whatever McFarren has on her to-do list or any other tasks that life on a ranch throws at them. “What is involved for the mentor is that you’re having meetings and you’re teaching them everything from fencing, how to work a tractor, stockmanship, animal health,” McFarren said. “How to put up electric fencing; for us it’s now how to use virtual fencing.” While standard tasks for most ranches,

McFarren’s intentional about making sure that the way she does each will help restore or keep healthy the ecosystems for which she’s responsible. Among those intentions, Pollack described how the day’s schedule is partially informed by the ranch’s primary power source, which is solar power; that the chicken feed does not have soy in it, a monoculture-produced crop that often degrades fields where it grows; and, of course, rotational grazing to ensure that the grasslands are supported, rather than destroyed, by grazing. McFarren even rotates the horse’s pastures. “I do believe regenerative agriculture, while it’s kind of a buzzword, the essence of it is people who are working together to steward the land in a good way so that we can continue raising cattle and using them as tools for soil health,” McFarren said. McFarren also said that ranching in the West is near a paradigm shift, with so many apprentices who are women, so many who are young and from the suburbs. “They (are) kind of injecting some new ideas and new thoughts across the culture,” she said. “And, well, I think for most of them it is because they’re looking at their future with climate change and food insecurities and saying, ‘Where can I be of the most value?’”

Doing more than nothing

Pollack said she believes that if money were no object, most people would do agricultural work. “You go to sleep at the end of the day tired. You’re able to work with your hands all day and actually see the physical work you’re doing in front of you. And I just don’t think there’s a better way to have a relationship with your work,” she said. It helps that she thinks it’s gorgeous in the mountains and that they’re not caught up in the nonsense of the world, which makes it a peaceful way of life. “I think that a lot of people would benefit from experiencing that,” she said. If only it were that simple though. McFarren chats with her neighbor who is a seventh-generation rancher with whom she and her apprentices work closely. She feels he’s someone they can learn from, so she sends them to help him, too. Sometimes he’ll ask McFarren if, in light of the high costs, low pay and challenges, that they are setting up the apprentices for failure. “He’s like, ‘Don’t you think maybe this is like a cruel joke for these young people?’” McFarren said.

Isaac Hale, Deseret News Chrissy McFarren, owner, director and ranch mentor of Badger Creek Ranch, readies a saddle at her ranch in northwestern Fremont County, Colo., on July 14.

“And I was like, ‘God, I gotta hope not.’” They’ll have to figure that out on their own, she added. But she does hope that they are going to be the ones to find new ways of doing things, or who change policies so that ranching continues

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UTAH GIVES

How 100 Women Who Care is changing lives in Utah Group meets quarterly to pool resources and donate to worthy causes By Lois M. Collins and Mallory Mailloux

Deseret News

In a world f illed with needs, it’s easy to think the little you can do won’t make much difference. But the members of 100 Women Who Care and the nonprof its they help are proof that a little bit of support can have a far-reaching impact. Just band together with others and see what happens. When they met in June, the group of Salt Lake City area women celebrated putting $1 million into local nonprof it organizations by donating $100 each quarter for the past 11 years. And those in the 100 Women Who Care SLC group have had a lot of fun doing it.

Birth of a giving circle

Lisa Evans brought 100 Women Who Care to Salt Lake County in 2015, after a visit to Ohio where a friend showed her the incredible buying power of bite-size philanthropy that has been multiplied. The original 100 Women Who Care (100WWC) was born in Jackson, Michigan, in 2006. Karen Dunigan had learned that many of the mothers in her community slept with their newborns or put them in boxes or dresser drawers because they couldn’t afford cribs. The risky situation bothered her, but she didn’t have $10,000 to solve it. But as Deseret News reported in 2019, “What she did have was a big heart, a little money and lots of women friends.” She gathered a group of her friends and each brought a $100 check. Some of those friends also brought friends and within an hour of their meeting, they had collected $12,800. The need was met. The idea caught f ire in a big way and there are chapters not just across the U.S. now, but across the world. Evans, a singer, musician and songwriter, said that 100WWC practices giving in a way that “mothers and nurtures” communities. What’s raised in one community stays there. Over the years, 570 women have participated and 272 are now active in the Salt Lake County chapter. She said they’d love to hit 300 so grants are even more generous. The Salt Lake chapter meets the f irst Wednesday of March, June, September and December in LDS Hospital’s auditorium. The meeting starts promptly at 5:30 p.m. and ends exactly at 6:30 p.m. The women nominate nonprof its they’d like the group to support and three of them are drawn randomly from a bag, then featured in 10-minute presentations by their nominators. After the women vote, the two not chosen each get $200 and can be nominated twice more. If still not chosen, they can’t be nominated for two years. One of the group’s many strengths, Evans said, is the diversity of the women, who range in age from their early 20s to their late 80s. They also come with a wide range of political views and

Tess Crowley, Deseret News Allison Spencer and Vanessa Almaraz, from left, pasteurize milk at the Mountain West Mothers' Milk Bank in South Salt Lake on May 5.

religious aff iliations. “We may be the most congenial, diverse group of women in Salt Lake County,” she said. Stephanie McCallister agrees. As one of the youngest members of the Salt Lake chapter, she said, “I’ve met so many women, all different ages, different backgrounds.” McCallister loves being part of a group that does so much good in the community, and said she plans to be a member for a long time. She encouraged others to join, saying, “More membership will only increase the impact we can make.” McCallister works for Make-A-Wish Utah and presented the

nonprof it as a donation candidate at one of the meetings. Although Make-A-Wish Utah was not chosen for the donation that quarter, McCallister called it “a great experience.” She is amazed, she said, at all the good other nonprof its have done because of the group’s grants. Sheri Burrell is, at 87, the oldest member of the current chapter. A former middle school teacher from Ashland, Oregon, she moved to Utah to be near her children and their families. Healthy and “super busy,” Burrell said she doesn’t attend all of the meetings. Instead, she writes four checks, dated appropriately for the different meetings and sends them each year, leaving the

DESERET NEWS | SEPTEMBER 2026

Michael Nebeker Utah Refugee Scouts got the first donation from 100 Women Who Care SLC back in 2015. Since then, 44 other nonprofits have also benefited.

pay-to line blank. Some people bring cash to the meeting. There’s an online donation option, too. Those who attend virtually even get to vote. When she does go, Burrell enjoys it immensely. “It’s an easy way to make a big difference,” she said. “That’s what is so feel-good about that program: $100 each quarter but it makes a difference to whomever it goes. It’s a signif icant amount. With $27,000, you can buy a used car if you need that for delivery.”

Giving for good

Mountain West Mothers’ Milk Bank received a donation from the women’s giving circle a few years ago and used it to buy two pasteurization devices, which are among the specialized and expensive equipment needed to run a milk bank. On a recent tour of the bank, executive director Amanda Ottley said breast milk gives babies their best start in life. Many women cannot produce enough milk themselves; donations from new moms who can are immensely helpful. The donated breast milk arrives frozen, then is thawed, pasteurized, refrozen and thoroughly tested to make sure it meets specif ic health and calorie standards before being sent to hospitals in Utah and southern Idaho. Ottley called the process “an amazing opportunity for anyone who wants to be involved and to really help the most fragile members of our community and our population.” Another grant recipient, Little Miracles, got its start in a single good deed, according to founding member Lisa Childers. On Halloween 2014, she and a couple of friends were pondering how they could help a woman who was struggling. They wanted to help her clean her house. Their friend was outgunned at the moment

by things going on in her life. Once they convinced her, they had so much fun that the next question was, who do we help next? They’ve since been helping widows and single mothers and fathers with all kinds of tasks, from replacing flooring to painting and general spruce-ups. The volunteer force varies from job to job. Some take a handful of helpers, others up to 100. They work with donated supplies and time — no one in Little Miracles is paid and they all work other jobs or are retired. Right now, they help at least one family a quarter and sometimes more, the people nominated by others. The money from 100WWC bought an enclosed trailer so they can keep their supplies in good-to-go shape. Before that, they were loading and unloading paint, cleaning supplies and other things into volunteers’ cars for each trip. Life’s simpler and more eff icient now, said Childers, who is a construction manager for a local home builder.

What big hearts can buy

The f irst donation back in 2015 helped send a group of Boy Scouts who were refugees to the World Scout Jamboree in Japan, with a side trip to visit their relatives in refugee camps in Thailand and a brief stop in their family homeland, Myanmar, which they had never seen. The youths, from very diverse religious backgrounds, had worked hard to raise most of the money needed themselves, with some corporate help, and the donation from 100WWC made up the rest. Since then, the Salt Lake women have given grants to 44 nonprof its. Among them: • The Utah Independent Living Center used its money to buy

equipment to improve independence for adults with disabilities. • The donation to the Horizonte Scholarship Fund provided money for 46 minority, low-income graduates of Horizonte Instruction and Training Center to start studies at a community college or trade school. • Twenty-f ive Securebooks were purchased for the University Prison Education Program, bolstering learning for 100 students who are inmates. • A gift to Stella H. Oaks Foundation paid for six college or technical school scholarships for single moms. One recipient said she’d been able to go from three jobs to one as a result. “Before I was barely functioning as a mother, student and employee,” she wrote. • Hearts Knit Together creates kits with towels, hygiene products, children’s clothing, books and something homemade like a scarf or hat for women and a toy and blanket for each child. The grant bought supplies. • The women paid about 40% of the cost of a van for The Other Side Academy’s moving company. The academy’s students are people who have a felony record and are working to reestablish themselves in society. • 100WWC donated to Uplift Community Alliance to provide special Apple iPads and wheelchair attachments for special-needs children who are nonverbal, helping them communicate. One dad said the iPads opened up a new world for his son, lessening his and the family’s frustrations. • F ill the Pot feeds hundreds of homeless individuals twice a week. The grant bought a professional refrigerator, awnings for shelter as they wait in line, plumbing, a furnace and other repairs to the building the city provides.

10 DESERET NEWS | SEPTEMBER 2026

UTAH GIVES

Innovation drives the Relief Society’s $100M humanitarian campaign Drawing on a history of women’s leadership, President Camille N. Johnson is part of helping charities work differently By Tad Walch

Deseret News

Mothers and babies died in childbirth so often in frontier Utah that Female Relief Society President Eliza R. Snow called to action the women of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1872, she led a successful effort to recruit young women with “nerve, energy and ambition” to seek medical degrees in the East. In 1921, one of her successors launched another campaign to better healthcare to mothers and infants in rural areas. Soon, Utah had one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the nation. Today, another Relief Society president leads an innovative $119.2 million international project to support the health and development of children under 5 and their mothers in a dozen nations. “Of course we should be providing maternal and newborn care now,” President Camille N. Johnson said. “We’re focused on women’s leadership, women’s self-reliance and maternal and newborn care, which has always been the pattern of Relief Society.” She has helped to pioneer a new strategy at the core of the Caring for Women and Children Global Initiative launched in 2023 in Africa, Asia and Central America. The idea? Organize eight international charities — including Latter-day Saint Charities — into subgroups to leverage the experience and relationships each already had. There was also hope the collaborations would spark synergy, eff iciency and effectiveness, President Johnson said. “The locations are places where the governments are engaged and anxious to lift and bless their people,” she said. “So we go into those places, we organize these groups into small consortias and you see three or four of them working together on child nutrition or better agricultural practices for women, for example.” It’s the kind of innovation that made it f itting that President Johnson served as the grand marshal of the 2026 Days of ’47 Parade, which marks the arrival of the f irst Latter-day Saint pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. The Relief Society’s global initiative launched with $44 million in 2023. Funding expanded by $11.8 million in 2024. Those funds provided help to 2.7 million women and more than 12 million children. President Johnson announced an additional $63.4 million last year. The money became more important to the charities when the Trump administration shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2025, she said. She said the Church of Jesus Christ is unique because it

Brian Nicholson, for the Deseret News President Camille N. Johnson, Relief Society general president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and her husband, Brother Douglas R. Johnson, wave to the crowd as they participate in the Days of '47 Parade in Salt Lake City on July 24.

doesn’t draw on government dollars. “We’re asking the charities to go about their work in a different way so that the available money goes farther,” President Johnson said. “We’ve asked them to cross-share information. They didn’t used to work like this. They were really siloed. They’re starting to see that it works. “I describe it as one plus one suddenly feels like three instead of just two, because they’re sharing information.” For example, Vitamin Angels has one expertise and Catholic Relief Services has another. Together, one nongovernmental organization may f ind that the hard work it did with a government to provide clean water also could provide vitamins to those who need them.

“If two charities work in isolation, the job won’t get done as eff iciently,” President Johnson said. “It’s changing how these NGOs work. It’s the church, it’s the NGOs and it’s the governments working together.” The Relief Society and the church’s Humanitarian Services department set specif ic markers for the charities to meet. “We are evaluating those markers to make sure that the dollars are well spent,” President Johnson said. “We’ve had our challenges. It hasn’t been perfect, smooth sailing, but this has been really innovative.” The seven charities collaborating with the church are CARE International, Catholic Relief Services, Helen Keller International, the Hunger Project, iDE (International Development

DESERET NEWS | SEPTEMBER 2026

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson visits with two young girls in a drought-stricken area of northeastern Uganda in March 2023.

Enterprises), Save the Children and Vitamin Angels. President Johnson gave credit to other women who created longtime relationships with those charities on behalf of the church. Those women also helped develop the new strategy, including Sharon Eubank, who recently retired, and her successor as director of Humanitarian Services, Elissa Gifford. President Johnson leads 8 million women in the Relief Society and travels the world to minister to them and meet with government leaders, not unlike President Snow did 150 years ago. She brings legal and leadership experience to her role after working as an attorney and head of a law f irm. Her chair on the church’s Welfare and Self-Reliance executive committee maintains the tie between the society’s work and the faith’s humanitarian efforts. She says it is obvious that investing in children is investing in the future, but she said investing in a woman also comes with signif icant leverage. “When you educate a woman, when you provide her with information, knowledge, education and resources, she shares what she knows,” she said. “Women share it all with their children and it benef its their children and the whole family, but they also share with other women and with their communities.” President Johnson watched it happen during a UNICEF trip to Uganda in 2023. Women gathered at a community health fair under a tree to learn about child nutrition, how to assess malnourishment, how to protect against mosquito-borne illnesses. Then they went hut to hut on foot to share that information.

“The Relief Society’s responsibility to provide temporal relief has always meant a responsibility on the part of the sisters to identify needs in their communities and then satisfy them,” she said. “As the church has grown internationally, that responsibility has become an international one.” President Johnson said the Relief Society doesn’t leave out men, either. “We just know how we can best affect and impact men,” she said, “and it’s through the women. Women’s self-empowerment and community development are certainly going to be areas we continue to address.” Investing in women is also an investment in their hope, she said. She said they have a tenacity in their faith in Jesus Christ. “Women hope for healthy babies,” she said in a social media post after a fundraising concert at the Hollywood Bowl by the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. “They hope for information and education, they hope for their families to be free of disease, they hope for clean water and appropriate nutrition, they hope for the well-being of their children.” President Johnson, who received a Sundance leadership award in 2025, has broad responsibilities. She is a member of the church’s Priesthood and Family Executive Council and sits on the church Board of Education that oversees Brigham Young University, BYU-Idaho, BYU-Hawaii, BYU-Pathway Worldwide and Ensign College. She also offers her voice on two organizing committees, one for the Salt Lake Temple open house celebration in 2027 and another for the church’s bicentennial in 2030.

“A lawyer’s work is to persuade and solve problems, to see both sides of a case and to think objectively, analytically and strategically,” she said. “I see myself as a problem solver. That skill has transferred beautifully to my work.” One of her biggest goals is to promote peace and the natural peacemaking power of women, she said. “I hope our sisters feel a sense of belonging,” she said. “I want them to know they are a part of something that really matters, that’s bringing relief to people everywhere. You’re part of the greatest cause.” She noted that Joseph Smith organized the Relief Society in 1842 with a charge to “be at peace with the Lord, with those around them, and with themselves.” President Johnson, the mother of three sons and a grandmother to eight, said that peace is vital to helping women and children. “If you’re in a place where there’s never peace, it’s hard to manage child nutrition,” she said. Women’s leadership can help provide peace. “Women don’t always get to be at the table, and then peace comes a little more slowly,” she said. “Leaders forget about the needs of women and children if they’re not represented there at the table where peacemaking is made.” She has discovered the secret power of the Relief Society, she said. “They way I receive relief myself is by providing it,” she said. “When we assemble to bring relief to others, we f ind relief in that service.”

DESERET NEWS | SEPTEMBER 2026

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Utah Always Answers The Call For Help Utah Gives highlights the work of non-profit organizations across our state. This section connects readers with meaningful causes, volunteer opportunities, and community events. Our goal is to raise awareness and support for various charitable efforts. Whether you want to get involved, donate, or learn more, Utah Gives is your gateway to making a positive impact.

DESERET NEWS | SEPTEMBER 2026

EVENTS

FESTIVALS

CONCERTS & LIVE MUSIC

SPORTS

CORNBELLY'S SUNFLOWER FESTIVAL

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BYU FOOTBALL VS. ARIZONA

TIME: Varies

TIME: 7 p.m.

TIME: 1:30 p.m.

DATE: Sept. 5-30

LOCATION: 3687 W. 5600 South, Spanish Fork

DATE: Sept. 15

DATE: Sept. 12

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LOCATION: 3200 S. Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City

Silversun Pickups also perform.

LOCATION: 1700 N. Canyon Road, Provo Cougars begin Big 12 play at home.

MIDWAY SWISS DAYS FESTIVAL

LYNYRD SKYNYRD

REAL SALT LAKE VS. NEW YORK CITY FC

TIME: 8 a.m.-8 p.m.

TIME: 7 p.m.

TIME: 7:30 p.m.

DATE: Sept. 5

LOCATION: 75 100 West, Midway

DATE: Sept. 16

DATE: Sept. 12

A cherished Midway tradition.

LOCATION: 155 N. 1000 West, Salt Lake City

Group has been called "the definitive Southern rock band."

LOCATION: 9256 S. State, Sandy First meeting since 2023.

UTAH STATE FAIR

UTAH CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL

UTAH FOOTBALL VS. ARKANSAS

TIME: Varies

TIME: 7:30 p.m.

TIME: 8:15 p.m.

DATE: Sept. 10-20

LOCATION: 155 N. 1000 West, Salt Lake City

DATE: Sept. 16

DATE: Sept. 12

The story of Utah comes to life.

LOCATION: 1100 N. 900 E., Provo

Internationally renowned soloists perform.

LOCATION: 451 S. 1400 East, Salt Lake City Utes welcome SEC foe to Rice-Eccles Stadium.

GREEK FESTIVAL

MATCHBOX TWENTY

UTAH ROYALS FC VS. ANGEL CITY FC

TIME: 11 a.m.-10 p.m.

TIME: 7 p.m.

TIME: 5 p.m.

DATE: Sept. 11-13

LOCATION: 279 S. 300 West, Salt Lake City

Festival celebrates 50 years.

DATE: Sept. 18

LOCATION: 155 N. 1000 West, Salt Lake City

Rock band brings the "Real World" to the Utah State Fair.

DATE: Sept. 20

LOCATION: 9256 S. State, Sandy Royals are among NWSL's top teams.

DESERET NEWS | SEPTEMBER 2026

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