Good News Utah Magazine—Fall 2021 by Good News Utah

Fall 2021 GoodNewsUtah.com + The Other Side Academy Creating a better life for convicts, addicts, and the homeless + From Refugee Philanthropistto One Utah teen’s quest to change the world of UtahColorThe HOW NIKKI WALKER IS IMPROVING DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION +POSITIVELY UTAH

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Fall Contents Storie

BY CAROLYN CAMPBELL

28 The Color of Utah: One Woman’s Quest to Improve and InclusionDiversity

David Durocher was a drug addict and convict who had spent several years in and out of prison. Then one day he made a decision that helped him to slowly build a brand-new life. Now, he helps others who have hit rock bottom to do the same.

Where can families turn when their very young children need help with mental or emotional issues? For nearly 60 years, The Children’s Center, a nonprofit organization in Salt Lake City, has provided mental health care to enhance the well-being of infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and their families and caregivers—regardless of their ability to pay.

BY LORALIE PEARCE

BY JAMIE ARMSTRONG

342228 IN EVERY ISSUE p. The6 Bright Side p. Good60 News by the Numbers p. High61 Note

34 The Other Side Academy: Sharing Hope and Transforming Lives

2021

22 The Children’s Center: Providing Help, Hope, and Healing

When people of different races, cultures, and sexual orientations share ideas and work together, it enriches businesses and communities. That’s why Nikki Walker is on a mission to improve diversity and inclusion throughout the Beehive State.

Feature

utah 2021Fall 2 Fall 2021 Contents Department S & Column S

I strongly believe that what we see largely depends on what we look for. Here are a few ways that we can recognize and enjoy more of the good things in life. By t ere S a Collin S

When Elizabeth Gardner found an anonymous note from a lonely LGBTQ teen, she knew that she had to act. And after sharing the note on social media, the local community responded in a unique and heartfelt way to show the teen that she was loved and supported.

Department S 11

By m egan p i C kett

53 In the Business of Strengthening Families When Jordan Page decided to start a blog to share some of the ideas she had learned about budgeting and saving money, she never would have imagined that it would turn out to be a multimillion-dollar business. By r an D y S C ott

Many adults struggle with literacy. Thankfully, Project Read Utah offers free help with reading and writing, with the goal of eliminating illiteracy in Utah County. By k ier S tynn k ing

By Jamie a rm S trong 14 Helping Actors with Autism Shine Provo filmmaker Levi Harris knows that actors with autism bring some thing special to his productions. And he has made it his mission to show people in the film industry that when they are more inclusive in their casting, it not only benefits the actors but the audience as well.

50 Changing Lives Through Literacy

Many would-be restaurateurs develop a following with their food trucks until they can establish a brick-and-mortar location, but many still keep their trucks moving! By m ary Cra F t S

41 Becoming a Legacy Maker When Jennie Taylor became a military widow, she was thrown into the spot light as she and her seven children grieved the loss of their husband and father. Now, she is building upon her husband’s legacy of patriotism and service by investing in future leaders, honoring military families, and finding opportunities to bring the community together. By k aren p ainter 46 Lego Master Moms

The Anonymous Note That United a Community

18 From Refugee to Philanthropist: How One Utah Teen Is Giving Back Ashis Dhakal has experienced poverty firsthand. And he has made it his life’s mission to make the world a better place for others in similar circumstances.

C olumn S 5 Rising Above Life can be hard and is often unfair. But the world is also filled with incredible people who persevere until they rise above even the most difficult circumstances. By Jamie a rm S trong 8 3 Ways to Enjoy the Good Things in Life

56 Mary’s Fab 5: Food Trucks

58 It’s All About the Questions Life is filled with complexity. Are you asking the right questions to solve your problems and get where you want to go? By Dan Clark

This summer, two mothers from American Fork competed on season two of Fox’s hit TV show Lego Masters, where their original creations were judged each week against the creations of other Lego enthusiasts. By k ier S tynn k ing

11 18 41

By k ier S tynn k ing

mystrongworld.com My Strong World was created to encourage people to “Ask Yourself.” It’s a place that reminds you that everything is inside of you and offers a safe place to come back to your body and find your center. I offer one-on-one coaching, group coaching, workshops, and retreats with a guarantee that when you apply the principles taught, you can create your best life. Li a life  lo LET’S GROW TOGETHER

All my best, Jamie Armstrong Rising Above Life can be hard and is often unfair. Tragedy strikes. We make serious mistakes. Some are born into unimaginable conditions. But the world is also filled with incredible people who refuse to give up, and they persevere until they rise above even the most difficult circumstances.

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Also in this issue is the story of Utah teen Ashis Dhakal, a refugee from Nepal. He spent the earliest years of his life in a refugee camp before finally immigrating to the U.S. He now spends his time serving the local homeless community and children in Nepal who live in extreme poverty (“From Refugee to Philanthropist: How One Utah Teen Is Giving Back,” p. 18).

Jennie Taylor had recently given birth to her seventh child when her husband, Major Brent Taylor, was killed in Afghanistan. To honor his legacy, she has created a new foundation to serve military families and train future leaders (“Becoming a Legacy Maker,” p. 41).

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P blisher’s

P U blisher & C eo Jamie Armstrong e ditors Jannalee MadelineSandauThatcher d ireC tor of s ales & a dvertising Alex Saldarriaga bU siness d evelo PM ent Val Butcher e ditorial i nterns Kierstynn King Halen Hubbard Contrib U ting aU thors Carolyn Campbell Dan TeresaClarkCollinsMaryCraftsKarenPainterLoraliePearceMeganPickettRandyScott d esign and Prod UC tion Hales Creative Kelly Nield, Creative/Art Director Good News @GoodNews_UtahUtahGoodNewsUtah a dvertising/ sP onsorshi P sales@GoodNewsUtah.com a rti C le Q U eries / write for U s submissions@GoodNewsUtah.com sU bs C ri P tions GoodNewsUtah.com or info@GoodNewsUtah.com g ood n ews Utah 61 South 1300 West, Suite A Pleasant Grove, UT 84062

At Good News Utah, we are constantly searching for posi tive stories to inspire and uplift our readers, and some of our favorites we have found are about people who have overcome their suffering and have refused to let their circumstances define them. This issue is filled with those stories.

Helen Keller once said, “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” It is my hope that the stories in this issue can help us all find renewed strength and determination to rise above the challenges we are facing and then make the world a better place for others around us. What better way to show how indomitable and resilient the human spirit truly is.

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

“All I know is that my life is better when I assume that people are doing their best. It keeps me out of judgment and lets me focus on what is, and not what should or could be.”

eleanor roosevelt

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Little Hollywood

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utah 2021Fall 6 Fun Fa C t S , in S pirational quote S , an D other intere S ting S tu FF

D id you know that there is a place in Kanab known as Little Hollywood? It’s a location that has served as a backdrop for more than 100 movies!

The word coat was first used in the Middle Ages, with its modern meaning dating back to approximately A.D. 1300. Turn to p. 18 to read about a teen from Nepal who has collected more than 3,000 coats for homeless.the Fun Fa C t Lego bricks were invented more than 50 years ago and have become one of the most prolific toys on earth. In fact, it’s estimated that there are 80 Lego bricks for every person on the planet! Turn to p. 46 to read about two American Fork moms who recently competed on the hit show Lego Masters.

—Brené Brown Hugs are a great way to express caring and affection toward another person, but they are also good for your health. For instance, when we hug someone, the level of oxytocin (a.k.a. the “cuddle hormone”) rises in our bodies and in turn lowers blood pressure and reduces stress. In fact, studies show that the effects were especially strong for women.

Other benefits associated with hugging include getting sick less often, reducing levels of pain, feeling less afraid, and improving communi cation with others. For optimum results, researchers recommend 12 hugs a day, so get out there and hug someone!

Hugs for Health

According to the Little Hollywood museum, Kanab made its film debut in 1924 with Deadwood Coach, starring Tom Mix and Tony the Wonder Horse. Later, director William Wellman nicknamed Kanab “Little Hollywood,” and the name has stuck ever since. Kanab accommodated the Hollywood elite by opening a variety of bars and restaurants, and the stars showed their appreci ation by supporting the community. When Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack came to town, Sinatra paid for the swimming pool at The Parry Lodge and bought uniforms for the Kanab High School football team. Movies like Union Pacific (1939), Buffalo Bill (1944), Planet of the Apes (1968), The Flintstones (1994), The Lone Ranger (2013), and Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) were all filmed in Kanab, along with several TV shows such as Gun Smoke, Lassie, The Lone Ranger, Daniel Boone, and Death Valley Days

The Bright Side

Whether you’ve done the before or want whole food recipes for your family, this book will inspire you. Learn more and get started at Whole30.com

I strongly believe that what we see largely depends on what we look for. Here are a few ways that we can recognize and enjoy more of the good things in life.

2. Live in the now. Life unfolds in the present. But how often do we let the present slip away, rushing past our current blessings while worrying about the future or the past? So many people put off going on a trip, investing in self-care, cele brating, or doing something they love. I live daily with the thought to enjoy “right now.” I say, eat the cake, dance, enjoy your favorite foods, go to the movie, and stop postponing the things that bring you joy. Why not do what you can to make yourself and others smile right now? So often, we wait for the special occasion—the birthday or holiday—to give to others. But I no longer wait to share from the heart. When those special occasions to arise, I like to take my family on trips and give them experiences rather than monetary gifts. It is quite normal for parents to leave money to Happiness for me is to taking time to serve and love others.

Starting with small, intentional acts on a daily basis will help to create a richer and more reward ing life.

1. Live with intention. I focus on being intentional every day. It starts with recogniz ing that time on this earth is to be valued and lived. Tomorrow is never promised, and time never stops for anyone. That’s why I am mindful in using my time to build up myself and others, to spread joy and happiness. Happiness for me is taking time to serve and love others. For example, I enjoy giving small but personal gifts to those who I love, just to let that person know that I appreciate them. I also choose to send texts or call my kids for the simple purpose of sharing my love for them.So, what does living with intention look like for you?

I am often asked why I am so happy. In fact, I’ve been stopped by complete strang ers who ask me why I’m smiling. When they ask, “What is making you so happy?” my answer is always the same: I am grateful for today. I am grateful to be alive.But achieving this level of happiness didn’t come easily. Like everyone else, I’ve expe rienced my share of personal tragedies and challenges. However, after deep reflection and consistently striving to shift my perspective, I have come to more deeply appreciate life’s journey and all the good things it has to offer. Here are my three tips for helping you to do the same.

BY TERESA COLLINS ally Positive

Column: Per P et U

3 Tips for Enjoying the Good Things in Life

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utah 2021Fall 9 their children upon their deaths, but it is my belief that it’s best to spend the money now so we can enjoy more experiences together and to create priceless memories.

3. Live with gratitude. Living each day with gratitude allows us to mentally focus on the good for a few minutes and actively enjoy our experiences. How do we experience more happiness? We start to look at our experiences with appreciation and joy. It’s the little things. Savor a meal. Go for a walk and seek out the beauty in nature. Pay attention to what’s happening in your present moment with true appreciation.Whenmyhusband was fighting cancer, I knew that my happiness and my kids’ happiness did not depend on his diagnosis. We chose to look for the good in the worst of cir cumstances and find happiness despite the situation. We decided as a family to be grateful for each day that we had left with him. Even though he was not well, his attitude was overflowing with gratitude. He only wanted time with us, and we felt the same. He enjoyed the simple act of watching Family Feud with me by his side. Even during his hardest days, he recognized the good that each moment offered. He chose to give thanks for each day remaining and to be happy with his Whenfamily.we are more aware of our lives, we are able to recognize and enjoy more of the good things. So, live in the present moment with intention and gratitude, energy and enthusiasm. This is the gift you can give to yourself and others every day. If we look for the good in people, the good in life, then we will find it. For your daily dose of positivity, follow TeresaCollinsStudio. Savor a meal. Go for a walk and seek out the beauty in nature. Pay attention to what’s happening in your present moment with true appreciation.

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O n a hot July evening, Elizabeth Gardner was walking with her children in Cascade Park in Orem, Utah, when something caught her eye—a piece of paper lying in the grass.

The Anonymous Note That United a Community

“I almost didn’t pick it up,” she recalls. But curiosity got the better of her. When Gardner inspected the paper, she discov ered that it was an anonymous note from a lonely LGBTQ teen. The 15-year-old girl had written about how she had just moved to Utah from Idaho, leav ing all her friends behind. She described watching some kids playing baseball in the park and wishing that she could join them. She then ended the note

BY JAMIE ARMSTRONG

t he r e S pon S e Gardner’s post was shared multiple times on Facebook, and the response from the community was more than she could have hoped for. “We had at least 100 people come and go throughout the evening,” she says.

t he p lan Gardner took a photo of the note and posted it on social media. She wrote: “Found this at Cascade Park tonight. Thought it would be cool if lots of people showed up to play some inclusive baseball and make some new friends. Big changes can feel heavy, and everyone can use friends. My kids and I will be there inviting anyone who wants to play.”

Jared Goodey and his 15-year-old daughter, Abigail, were two of those people.

“Whoever the girl was, I hope that she saw us and knew that all those people were there for her,” says Gardner. “I don’t know if she came, but for any kid out there who’s feeling alone like that, there are so many people who would want to support them and make them feel loved and welcomed.

“We have LGBTQ people at our house, and we know that it’s difficult in this area sometimes to find friendslike-mindedandtofindthesupportyouneed.”

If there are LGBTQ kids who saw the Facebook post shared, who saw the people responding, that’s a success right there.”

“We have LGBTQ people at our house, and we know that it’s difficult in this area sometimes to find like-minded friends and to find the support you need,” Jared says. “Of course we were going to go.”Abigail invited all her friends to come as well.

utah 12 2021Fall by saying that she would be returning to the park the next evening.

t he h ope

“I know from personal experience that it’s really difficult to initially find a group of people that you can trust and feel accepted with,” she says. “It’s super important, and I wanted to be able to help withThethat.”people who showed up to the park brought games, and Gardner brought kickballs that said “Come play! Everyone’s invited.” Someone even brought a rainbow flag and hung it in a nearby tree to make it easier for the teen to findSomethem.people suspect that the author of the note was there and was able to see the show of support for her, but no one knows for certain. To make sure that she knew people cared, several teens wrote notes to her and left them in the park for her to find.

In fact, the event was such a success that Jared and Abigail Goodey have decided to make it a weekly occurrence.

“Whoever the girl was, I hope that she saw us and knew that all those people were there for her.”

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Abigail adds, “The most important thing was not that she actually showed up and participated. It’s that she knows that there was a group of people that cared enough to come and create this commu nity for her. Just knowing that there’s a group of people who support you in the place where you live is super comforting.”

“Clearly there’s a need here,” Jared says. “There was such a bright, happy, loving energy with all of the kids there. It was really beautiful. If we keep doing this in the same place, that increases our chances of making contact with that girl. But at the very least, all these other kids are making connections with each other, and their families are making connections with each other. The more community support you have, the better.”

M any filmmakers will cast neurotypical actors—those of typical developmental, intellectual, and cognitive abilities—to play autistic characters, like in the recently released Netflix show Atypical. It’s a show about a boy with autism played by an actor who doesn’t have autism. But unlike those filmmakers, Levi Harris recognizes the benefit of casting actors with autism for these roles—and for all roles. a m oment o F i n S piration

Harris started casting actors with autism when he was casting for his short film The Thunderbird in 2017. The Thunderbird is about a young autistic boy

Helping Actors with Autism Shine

Provo filmmaker Levi Harris knows that actors with autism bring something special to his pro ductions. And he has made it his mission to show people in the film industry that when they are more inclusive in their casting, it not only benefits the actors but the audience as well.

BY MEGAN PICKETT

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utah 15 2021Fall named Anderson who doesn’t act the same as other young boys and ventures through the woods with a werewolf. Throughout this adventure, the film depicts Anderson’s experience and emotions. “In the end, he finds out something about himself that maybe ‘normal’ people would never understand anyway,” Harris explains.

Because the story is about a boy with autism, Harris said that in a moment of inspiration he wondered if he would be able to cast an actor with autism to play the part. “I realized after a couple auditions that this particular story would be impossible to do without them,” he recalls. So, Harris cast a boy with autism to act in the lead role. Harris says that he loved the unique influence and special charm that the actors with autism brought to his script while auditioning, so he cast almost all actors with autism to play roles in the film. “The first film started with a desire to share new stories using people who are seldom given the opportunity to tell those stories,” he says. “Because of that desire, my team produced one of the first and only films featuring actors on the autism spectrum.”

“We reached out to actors with a history of mental and emo tional illness, various learning disabilities—people who thought they would never be actors because of their conditions,” he says. “We felt that they had stories to tell, and if anyone was going to help them, we were.”

According to Harris, working with actors who have autism or other disabilities has improved his films dramatically. “I can’t even describe how powerful and talented and good these actors were at just creating these moments and being able to capture those. I felt honored,” he says.Cole Squires, producer of The Thunderbird, has also helped produce the rest of Harris’s films and says that working with actors who have autism is unlike any film making he has experienced before. “Working with actors on the autism spectrum definitely allowed us to include perspectives . . . that were new to us—things that would have been outside of our imagina tion if we had been concocting it ourselves.”

a Supportive e nvironment Harris bases most of his films on short stories that take place in a literary universe called Anotherworld, which he created with co-author John Cornish. One of his films, Ziggy, also within this universe, was written as a prequel to The Thunderbird and follows the character Ziggy on her own adventures through the woods before meeting Anderson. The actress, who goes by Ziggy Fauske, Harris says that he loved the unique influence and special charm that the actors with autism brought to his script auditioning,whilesohe cast almost all actors with autism to play roles in the film.

i n C lu S ive Ca S ting Because of the success Harris found working with autistic actors in The Thunderbird, he now casts actors with autism and other disabilities to play roles in all his films.

Fauske hopes that these films will inspire more direc tors to cast actors with autism.

Andautistic—almostpredominantlyeveryonewassomewhereonthespectrum.Ireallywanttoseethatin movies and films more, especially ones that are about autism.”

Harris is in the process of making his company, Anotherworld Stories, Inc., a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization. He is currently working on a film titled Molly and plans to make more films that cast neurodiverse actors. To support him in his cause, you can purchase his book, Stories from Anotherworld, at anotherworldstories.com or amazon.com. It is available as an eBook or a paper back, and 100 percent of the proceeds go toward helping actors on the autism spectrum.

Actors on the spectrum will find safe places to tell their stories, and it will open the way for others who have been forgotten, neglected, and cast out in stepping forward and realizing that the world wants their stories, too.”

utah 16 2021Fall lives in Kaysville and is on the autism spectrum. She also played a role in The Thunderbird. She said the experience of acting in Harris’s films, though intimidating, has helped her to grow.

“I felt like I was back with people I can relate to in a really friendly and

Harris also wrote a short film called Pirate Party and predominantly cast actors on the autism spectrum. Eric Casper, an autistic actor from Riverton, was among those cast, and the film was his first opportunity to act outside of theater. Most of the lines in Pirate Party were improvised, and while Casper normally has a hard time getting out his words, he says, “Levi helped me get out what I needed to get out and helped to show me the potential I had. I was able to come up with all this great dialogue.”

beingactingenvironment.supportiveAndwiththemandapartofthefilmkindofrevitalizedmeandgavemeenergy.”

“The cast was

a Bright Future Casper hopes that these films will help those who are on the autism spectrum to accomplish great things and to be recognized. He also hopes that these experiences will help parents who have kids on the autism spectrum. “Hopefully, it will be a ground [for parents of children on the autism spectrum] for not worrying about their kids being diag nosed—that it won’t be the end, but that [their kids] can be successful,” he says. “We definitely have something. And Levi saw what we could do.”

“At first, I was nervous because it was one of the bigger things I did. Yeah, it was a small-time indie film, but it was still a film, so I was really nervous at first,” she says. “But I think once I got on set and met Levi and Cole and all the other people like me, I felt at home. I felt like I was back with people I can relate to in a really friendly and supportive environment. And acting with them and being a part of the film kind of revitalized me and gave me energy. It just made me feel a lot better.”

“People with autism have important things to say—not just as individuals on the spectrum but as human beings with unique experiences,” says Harris. “I believe that giving them the opportunity to do so will lead us to new creative vistas. It will change things. . . .

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S ome of Ashis Dhakal’s earliest memories are of living in a refugee camp in Jhapa, Nepal, where he was born. As part of the Lhotshampas minority, his parents were forced to flee ethnic cleansing in Bhutan in 1999. Unable to obtain citizenship in Nepal, they settled at the camp for several years.

“Our house was made from bamboo and hay. It was full of bedbugs,” Dhakal recalls. “We were surrounded by mosquitos and facing poverty. The conditions were very, very tough.”

From to PhilanthropistRefugee

How One Utah Teen Is Giving Back

Ashis Dhakal has experienced poverty firsthand. And he has made it his life’s mission to make the world a better place for others in similar circumstances.

BY KIERSTYNN KING

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“Culture shock was something I had to deal with quite a bit,” says Dhakal. He credits the Cub Scouts with helping him adjust to his new surroundings. But being an ethnic minority in Utah also brought many challenges Dhakal. He was bullied in school and was sometimes called a terrorist. Still, he did his best to maintain a positive attitude. He recently graduated from East High School in Salt Lake City and is now attending the University of Utah, majoring in entrepreneurship. “I have big goals to own multimillion-dollar businesses and give away millions to those in need,” he says.

At the end of 2018, after meeting a homeless man while working at KFC and learning that clothing was one of the man’s greatest needs, Dhakal was inspired to create his charity organization, Ashis Collects Clothes. Dhakal also credits his Hindu faith as inspiration for his charity work. “We’re taught to give, to share happiness together, and to have a positive impact in the lives of those who are struggling,” he says. In 2019, Dhakal became more focused on his charity. He did his first clothing drive, collecting coats, socks, hats, beanies, and shoes. He then took a trip to Nepal, where he spent three months working for a nonprofit called Youthlinc. Youthlinc’s goal is to help create lifelong humanitar ians by providing students and mentors with local and inter national service experiences. During that time, Dhakal helped raised $5,000.

iving Ba C k

“Growing up with an extremely poor background, and then going back and seeing that nothing had really changed and that people were suffering really affirmed my ‘why.’ I was in their shoes, and I know how it feels. I want to give back because I don’t want others to suffer in the same way,” he says.

Dhakal’s family dreamed of coming to America—specifi cally, Utah. They fell in love with a picture they had seen of Utah, and they had relatives living there. Finally, in 2009, after a two-year immigra tion journey through the International Organization for Migration, Dhakal, his three older sisters, his parents, and his grandparents, were able to immigrate to the Beehive State. The family was elated to be on U.S. soil. But coming during an economic recession made building a new life in a new country even harder.

“Jobs were pretty hard to come by,” says Dhakal. “It definitely put a financial burden on my family. It was hard, but luckily, we were able to overcome thatAnotherobstacle.”obstacle was adapting to a new culture.

From Dream to r eality

Moving from a third-world country to a first-world country, Dhakal is sensitive to poverty and inequity.

m aking Conne C tion S

“That $5,000 went toward the people in the village,” he explains. “We taught them skills, and most importantly, we taught them about the health sector, business sector, and water filters. We bought them sewing machines so they could learn how to sew bags, ties, and other items. We bought them water filters and health kits.”

After launching Ashis Collects Clothes, Dhakal heard about the Utah Refugee Connection through others in his community. He reached out to the

Dhakal also visited the refugee camp where he had lived as a child and was devastated to see the deteriorating conditions.

“We’re taught to give, to share together,happinessandtohave a positive impact in the lives of those who are struggling.”

The pair got to know one another, and Harmer learned that Dhakal was a high schooler trying to do well in school during the COVID-19 pandemic but was struggling because his computer was not working well.

Dhakal says meeting Cuban was an awesome experience. “He’s really intelligent and extremely helpful. He gave me a lot of insights about entrepre neurship and being a philanthropist.”

Kotb then told Dhakal that he would have the opportunity to interview and speak to one of his heroes—entrepreneur, philanthropist, and Shark Tank star Mark Cuban. “Mark Cuban is going to put the guard rails up and help you out a little bit here and there, but you’re going the distance,” she said.

utah 20 2021Fall organization’s executive director, Amy Dott Harmer.

“In the back of my mind, I thought, ‘I’m sure I could find him a computer,’ but I was worried about what he would do with it,” she says. Harmer ended up giving Dhakal a computer and made him promise that he would only use it for good. Dhakal agreed. “Two weeks later, he reached out and told me about his charity and how he was collecting clothes and items for the homeless,” says Harmer. “He told me to let him know if there was anything that we couldn’t take.” Every two weeks, Harmer would drop off items on Dhakal’s porch that the refugee share house couldn’t take. i n the Spotlight

In the fall of 2020, Comcast launched a commercial featuring Dhakal as part of their internet essentials program. The commercial talked about how Dhakal was changing the world from his bedroom and showed him unloading clothes for his charity and teaching English to children in Nepal on his computer. “Being able to educate and motivate them is a blessing. They want to learn, and that’s the best feeling,” he says.

As a result of the Comcast commercial, Dhakal was then featured on Today as part of the show’s “Tomorrow’s Voices” program, which pairs talented teens with inspiring mentors to help them achieve their goals. “You are leading with a passion that has been buried deep in your soul since you were a baby, and that is going to drive you until your last breath,” host Hoda Kotb told Dhakal during a Today segment in March.

t he Challenge In a March segment of Today, Cuban challenged Dhakal to collect items for a coat drive. “I’d like for you to collect 575 coats that we can then give away to people in need,” Cuban said.

Dhakal continues to serve both the local and international communities with various projects. In May of this year, he collected 500 pairs of shoes to donate to those in need in the Salt Lake City area. And in August, he raised more than $2,000 so that a sick baby in Nepal could have a life-saving surgery.

When Dhakal met up with Cuban again, Dhakal reported that he had collected more than 3,000 coats. Cuban then told Dhakal that Today’s parent company, Comcast, was going to match Dhakal’s donation.

At first, Dhakal really struggled to get donations, so he contacted Harmer to see if she was able to help. “He reached out to me and asked if I could help.

At first, it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, is he really going to be able to do this?” Harmer recalls. “On Monday, he only had 10 coats.” Harmer decided to post about Dhakal’s coat drive on the Utah Refugee Connection Facebook page. She asked people to donate coats at Dhakal’s home. “We have a rather large following on the Utah Refugee Connection page, so I was hoping that people would reach out. I had told him that I couldn’t guarantee people were going to rally, but I really hoped they did,” she says. People did, in fact, rally. In less than five days, Dhakal ended up collecting 3,018 coats. “It just went like wildfire,” says Harmer. “People really wanted to support Ashis’s effort of trying help the homeless and help him meet this goal given by Mark Cuban. His entire garage was filled with donated coats.”

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Changing the Worl D Harmer says that the whole experience helped to give refugees a voice. “Public perception about refugees is often that we give them so much and that they drain our communities, or they take our jobs. But that isn’t the case,” she says. “Refugees contribute in remarkable ways and want to give back once they get back up on their feet. Ashis is the perfect example of that. When we invest in human potential, we receive great dividends.”

“Refugees contribute in remarkable ways and want to give back once they get back up on their feet. Ashis is the perfect example of that. When we invest in human potential, we receive dividends.”great

Dhakal credits the power of social media and the generosity of Utahns for his success with Cuban’s philanthropist challenge. “I was speechless. It really touched my heart. I’m not only giving someone a coat but also helping them to get to a better pathway in life,” he says.

“I want to change the world through service,” he says.As far as future plans, Dhakal will be working to expand his humanitarian efforts both locally and internationally by creating the Namaskar United Foundation. Ashis Collects Clothes will be a program run as part of the foundation. “Locally, the homeless community is really struggling. I want to be able to help them through my nonprofit foundation,” he says. Internationally, Dhakal wants to build hospitals and schools in third-world countries. “I want to give them countless opportunities like scholarships, resources, and mainly education because I know that with education, impossibilities become real ities. And with education in their life, I know that they can change the world for theTobetter.”support Dhakal in his humanitarian efforts, follow Namaskar United on Facebook and Instagram.

“You’re setting an example,” Cuban told him. “It’s not about connections. It’s not about who you know. It’s all about effort. It’s all about how hard you’re willing to work to get something done.”

utah 22 2021Fall The Children’s Center Providing Hope,Help, & Healing page 22 By Carolyn Campbell utah 2021Fall

For nearly 60 years, The Children’s Center, a nonprofit organization in Salt Lake City, has provided mental health care to enhance the wellbeing of infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and their families and regardlesscaregivers—oftheirabilitytopay.

Where can families turn when their very young children need help with mental or emotional issues?

Another time, he told his mother, “I’m afraid Jesus doesn’t want me.”

zra’s therapy started when he was 3½ years old and continued until he was 7. And the coping skills that Ezra, now age 9, learned at The Children’s Center continue to help him navigate life Blackhamtoday.explains, “My family has a history of mental health issues, including suicide. As a mother, it was important to me to help our son know how to care for his mental health. I knew that I was okay with therapy and wanted to seek it out.” Blackham explained that Ezra has a lot of anxiety and gets scared easily. “The thought of getting into trouble puts him in a tailspin,” she shares. Once, Ezra said, “I don’t want to be on this earth because I make everyone else miserable.”

utah 24 2021Fall

Ezra’s temper flared when things didn’t go his way at preschool, and he became extremely uncooperative. “Little kids grow out of biting and hitting, and he continued those behaviors longer than we thought was normal,” says Blackham. She and her husband observed that they could reason with Ezra’s older sister if she lost her temper. “We could talk her out of it eventually and let her play it out, but Ezra would just stay in it the whole day.”

Because Ezra’s behavior affected the whole family, the Blackhams chose to begin family therapy. “We went once a week and then twice a month. Our daughter went with us, and my husband came sometimes,” says Blackham. “We learned how to incorporate coping tools into our daily lives.”

h elping t hou S an DS o F u tah Familie S Founded in 1962 by Dr. Agnes M. Plenk, The Children’s Center began as a nursery school in a community church. One little boy was quite disruptive there. Plenk felt compelled to explain to his parents that he could no longer attend. His mother was highly distressed. She said, “You are the one person in the community who has the training to help us, and you’re turning us away?” This conversation was transformational—it inspired Plenk to create The Children’s Center. Often known by her nickname of Agi, Plenk was “a woman ahead of her time,” says Rebecca Dutson, president and CEO of The Children’s Center. “She understood that W hen toddler Ezra Blackham exhibited behaviors that his mother, Sonja Blackham, felt were “more than something he would just grow out of,” she followed the suggestions of two preschool teachers and a pediatrician. She took Ezra for an assessment at The Children’s Center, where he later began mental health and family therapy.

“All children have periods in their development where they struggle, so it is important to note the duration and intensity,” says Mitchell. It’s also important to consider the child’s quality of life. For example, are they enjoying typical activities such as age-appropriate play and peer interactions, sleeping and eating as expected? It’s valuable to consider whether the child’s challenges impact the family’s quality of life. (Do they avoid activities due to the child’s behavior?) She advises, “I encourage all caregivers to listen to their gut. They are the experts on their child. If something worries you or seems off, ask a healthcare professional.”

She explains that fewer diagnoses are appropri ate for young children than for older children or adults since young children cannot articulate their internal experiences in ways that older children and adults can. They also have little control over their environment. “As a result, many young children present with similar challenges or behav ioral concerns, including eating, toileting, sleeping, tantrums, defiance, and delays with reaching developmental milestones,” says Mitchell. “They have limited ability to speak for themselves, if they even have words at all, so much of the evaluation comes from direct observations and reports from parents and caregivers.”

utah 25 2021Fall the benefits of going upstream (beginning therapy at a young age) could change the trajectory of children’s lives.”

The Children’s Center has been a fixture in Utah for 58 years and provides care for more than 2,000 children, families, and caregivers each year. The organization has grown to employ a staff of more than 100 people who are dedicated to helping Utah families.“TheChildren’s Center is a living, breathing agency that is committed to finding new and cre ative ways to help our community and the families living in it,” says Jennifer Mitchell, vice president of clinical strategy and innovation. She explains, “We see many behaviors that are considered typical for young children, such as anxiety around separation or challenges in meeting typical milestones or daily tasks such as eating or toileting.” On the surface, these might seem like average challenges. But there could be other complicating layers that are more intense than a child knows how to handle. Some families bring children with behavioral intensities such as “anxiety so severe that a child can’t ever separate and cries in childcare for hours,” says Mitchell. “We don’t want parents to become stuck in a cycle of wondering, ‘Is it bad enough to ask for help?’ We would rather that they go ahead and ask for the help.”

“The challenge in diagnosing young children is to look beneath the surface and get as much information as possible about the child’s environment and prior history,” says Mitchell.Arethere signs that a parent can look for that may indicate that seeking a mental health diagnosis might be a good idea? Mitchell suggests that caregivers can seek support when they are worried or unsure about anything related to their child’s well-being, rather than initially focusing on seeking a mental health diagnosis. “Talking with a trusted healthcare provider, such as a pediatrician, is a great place to start if caregivers are wondering about their child’s behavior or development.” She says that the healthcare provider can offer context for typical development and suggest resources and referrals if needed.

Many early experiences can affect a child’s devel opment and functioning, including development in utero, delivery, and their caregivers’ well-being in the first few years of life (the most critical period of brain development).

A young child’s sense of safety and well-being comes from their caregivers, says Mitchell. “They The Children’s Center has been a fixture in Utah for 58 years and provides care for more than 2,000 children, families, and caregivers each year.

Seeking Support

Sometimes it’s a new concept for people to think that such young children have mental health needs.

Coping t ool S During family therapy, Ezra and his family received a toolbox filled with coping tools. “It was a physical box, made from a shoebox, filled with little cards. We learned how to incorporate these tools into our daily lives,” Blackham recalls. One card depicted rainbow therapy, where Ezra imagined placing his feet in water, then envisioned a rainbow moving across his body. Another card represented a robot rag doll. When incorporating that tool, “Ezra would go really tense and squeeze his body (tight like a robot). Then he let his body relax (like a rag doll),” says Blackham. Ezra’s “special place” was a swim ming pool with his sister, mom, and dad. “When he felt scared or anxious, he could think about this special place,” says Blackham. He also learned “cookie breathing,” in which the participant imag ines the smell of fresh-baked cookies. “You breathe in as you put them in the oven and then exhale or blow on them to cool them,” says Blackham. “Ezra called it ‘sausage breathing’ because he would rather have a sausage than a cookie.” Blackham explains that while Ezra took a long time to utilize the coping skills consistently, as time passed, he began to recognize when he was becoming angry. “While I don’t think he consciously pulls out the robot/rag doll coping tool, I still see him tense up and then let his body relax.” She adds, “He doesn’t lash out the way he did when he was younger. He can talk about his feelings and recognize what he is feeling—angry, frustrated, or even just happy.” She says Ezra’s most significant takeaway from the therapy is that he can now put words to his feelings. “That helps with communication in the family. I think it is vital to talk about mental health—to not be ashamed of it.

“Once they stop and think about this, they realize that it’s true, just like we all have physical health needs,” says Dutson. “I will say that not every child and family needs our services. People come in for an assessment to make sure that we can provide them with the help they need.”

utah 26 2021Fall take their cues from them. If a caregiver is struggling, distressed, or worried, that may impact their interactions with their child and potentially their relationship. It’s important that caregivers not feel alone in parenting. There are providers available to answer their questions and offer support if needed.”

The center’s team of clinicians, psychologists, and psychiatrists are extremely skilled in using evidence-based treatment and trauma-informed practices. “It is very individualized and tailored to each child,” says Dutson. “Science tells us that when we work with very young children, they are highly resilient. When you give children the tools that they need to express themselves appropriately to advo cate for their needs and interact with their peers, all of those skills go with them throughout their lives.” The services are “wrap-around” and include caregivers and siblings. All participating children and their families and caregivers are engaged in out patient therapy; clinicians refer children who need additional assistance to the Therapeutic Preschool Program, which provides intensive daily treatment.

The center’s team of clinicians, psychologists, and psychiatrists are extremely skilled in using evidence-based treatment and trauma-informed practices.

Speaking of The Children’s Center itself, Blackham says, “There is so much support and love that comes out of that building that it can benefit any child (for whom the assessment deems appropriate) from the smallest behavior such as anxiety. When families take advantage of the therapy when children are little, building that kind of support in a little person’s mind will only benefit them in the long term.”

g iving Ba C k For her final MBA project at the University of Utah, Blackham completed a consulting project. She assembled a team that included data analysts, a financial professional, and a doctor. She served as a marketing specialist. “We chose to do our project for The Children’s Center.” In the end, the four team members were “so touched by what The Children’s Center did and does for the community that we dedicated our graduation gifts from friends and family to them, raising just over $2,000.” She adds, “It gave our team a chance to give back to someone who could use it and provided me with a way to personally give back to The Children’s Center, who helped me so much with their sliding scaleAsprogram.”forEzra,“He kind of loved the pandemic. It gave him a chance to be at home, away from all of the crazy, anxiety-inducing things that happen at school,” says Blackham. “But he is back at school now. He recently made a great new friend and scored 100 percent on a spelling test. We need more organizations like The Children’s Center to support the mental health of children, starting at a young age.” To donate, volunteer, or get help, visit childrenscenterutah.org.

Blackham says that she didn’t have a job when their family began therapy and that her husband was self-employed, so she is grateful that The Children’s Center operates on a sliding scale that made their participation possible. “Therapy is expensive, and insurances don’t always cover it,” she says. Because the center is a nonprofit, they can subsidize costs for families who usually wouldn’t be able to afford traditional counseling. “We do not turn away any child or family who needs our services,” says Dutson.

“At its core, the center focuses on supporting young children and their families by creating a sense of hope, no matter what their challenges are.”

Creating a Sen S e o F h ope Mitchell says, “At its core, the center focuses on supporting young children and their families by creating a sense of hope, no matter what their challenges are.”

utah 27 2021Fall

Mental health issues are more prevalent than we know. So many people are just afraid to talk about it.”

After Ezra aged out of The Children’s Center, he continued therapy “because he enjoyed it so much,” says Blackham. “He felt comforted by that support, that somebody outside of Mom and Dad talked to him about his feelings.”

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utah 29 2021Fall T h e One Woman’s Quest to Improve Diversity and Inclusion By Jamie Armstrong | Portraits by Sydney Marie Photography C O L O U R T o f A H When people of different races, cultures, sexual orientationsandshareideasandworktogether,itenrichesbusinessesandcommunities.That’swhy N i k k i W a l k e r is on a mission to improve diversity and BeehivethroughoutinclusiontheState.

“I have a son who’s going to be 24 this year, and he’s a big guy. He has long dreadlocks, and he’s definitely a presence when he walks into a room.

When we first moved here, going to the grocery store was quite the experience because there are children here who have never met a Black person in their lives—and it’s easy to not meet a Black person in Utah, where we make up less than 3 percent of the population,” she says. “There was a child who saw my son and couldn’t stop staring and pointing. He said, ‘Mom, look! There’s one of them.’

WalkerNikkiofcourtesyPhoto

This Is the Place

As the director of brand experience and community engagement for Domo, a cloud software company based in American Fork, Walker works tirelessly to drive diversity and inclusion initiatives throughout the state. “I, too, believe that ‘this is the place,’” she says. “Utah is the place for growth. It is the place for prosperity. It is the place where you can grab hold of a star and make it to the moon. So, it’s my responsibility—the responsibility of people in marginalized communities who live here and don’t look like the population—to educate people and to say, ‘We are all one, and we all want the same things.’”Butdoing so is easier said than done, and adjusting to Utah’s unique culture can be a chal lenge for many minorities. “I can literally name 15 people who, in the past four years, have come and gone because they could not align with the culture,” says Walker. “And I don’t mean the religious culture. I mean that the culture of this state is very family oriented. It is very ‘This is your group. These are your people.’ And it sometimes can feel cliquish.”

“It disturbed me,” Walker admits. “But we’ve learned that moments like those are opportunities to talk with parents and say, ‘You know, this place is changing.’”

Both Progressive and Conservative But Utah is on the forefront of creating a state where everyone is welcomed on equal footing.

Leaders are also taking steps to improve diversity and inclusion at a state level. Before former governor Gary Herbert left office, Walker participated in the signing of the Utah Compact on Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: A Declaration of Five Principles and Actions to Create Equal Opportunity.

utah 30 2021Fall

hen Nikki Walker moved from Jersey City, New Jersey—one of the most diverse cities in the United States—to Lehi, Utah, she came with an open mind. “I didn’t have any preconceived notions about Utah at all,” she says. Walker describes her Utah County community as “wonderful and welcoming.” Still, as a minority, there have been a few hiccups.

And I thought, ‘One of what? One human being? One big, tall man? One guy with braids?’”

“A lot of things that have happened in Utah are very progressive, and people really overlook that because it’s such a conservative state,” says Walker. “Utah has really taken the opportunity to lead the way in terms of equitable legality for certain communities, particularly the LGBTQ+ community.”

“There are all of these amazing statements inside the compact that say, ‘We want to make this a better place—a welcoming place, and a place where everybody feels comfortable,’” she explains. “And knowing that Governor Cox has made a serious commitment to stick by it and ele vate it and expand it feels really good. It feels really good to see that at the very tops of government and

Act is being passed in many states around the country because women of color have been discriminated against because of the way that they wear their hair—whether it’s because of dreadlocks or braids or natural afros,” Walker explains. “Many of the legislators didn’t understand why we needed this bill. And instead of hearing the voices of Black women in the community, one of the legislators told a story about how their nanny has never experienced discrimination because of her hair. “It was very dismissive, and the bill got tabled.” She adds, “I think that on a lot of issues, the legislature is separated from the realities of the things that they are trying to legislate. But I don’t think that it is unique to Utah.”

But there is still progress to be made. For minori ties, “There’s a lot of feeling left out of conversations that are happening around diversity,” says Walker. “There’s a lot of miscommunication between policy makers and the community right now.” One example that Walker sites is The C.R.O.W.N. Act—an anti-discrimination initiative for “creating a respectful and open world for natural hair.” The bill was recently brought forward by Representative Sandra Hollins—the only woman of color in the state“Thelegislature.C.R.O.W.N.

“Utah has the Black chamber, the Hispanic chamber, the Asian chamber, and the LGBTQ chamber,” says Walker. “It’s imperative that your organization is engaging with them because they can get your message to their audience. If you’re looking for local diverse talent, it’s at the chambers.”

By expanding their pool of candidates, busi nesses avoid creating an echo chamber and benefit from new perspectives and new ideas. “When you sit at a table where everybody is the same, everyone is just amplifying each other’s same ideas and beliefs,” Walker explains. “But if you sit at a table with 10 people from different backgrounds, now you can more closely relate to your client, your customer, and your community because you have these different perspectives. For me, diversity has always been about diversity of thought, and you can’t have diversity of thought without diversity of people.”So,where should employers go to seek out diverse talent? Livingcolorutah.com is a great place to start. The website has links to several minority chambers of commerce and business alliances.

“Utah is the place for growth. It is the place for prosperity. that at the very tops of leadership,mentgovern-andthingslikeItistheplace where you can grab hold of a star and make it to the moon.” equity for people of color and equity for people in the topcommunityLGBTQ+areofmind.”

utah 31 2021Fall leadership, things like equity for people of color and equity for people in the LGBTQ+ community are top of mind.”

Diversity of Thought

As Walker works with local businesses to improve diversity and inclusion, she emphasizes that equitable employment is completely different than affirmative action. “Nobody wants to be hired because they fit some box that you are trying to check,” she says. “It’s not fair to them. It’s not fair to you. It’s not going to bring any glory to anybody or anything.”Instead, Walker strives to help employers hire from a more diverse pool of candidates. “Talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not,” she says. “It is the responsibility of people who are holding power to provide opportunity for all of the talent that exists—not just for the portion of talent that looks like you, thinks like you, talks like you, and worships like you.”

“It feels really good to see

in famous Domo fashion, the company created a billboard that simply read: #BlackLivesMatter. Unfortunately, many Utah residents did not appre ciate the gesture. “It upset half of the valley,” Walker recalls. “There came a point where we were getting up to 30 messages a day saying that Domo was affiliated with a hate group and that we were racist. Somebody threatened to burn our building down. The billboard was vandalized. It was frightening.”

“The organization is controversial, and it is not something that I am affiliated with. But the Black Lives Matter movement is something that I fully support—it’s the idea that the lives of Black people are important. That movement is important to me because it mobilizes people and gets folks excited about getting involved in the world in which they live, whether that means protesting or talking to legislators or corralling your friends and cleaning up the neighborhood.”

“For me, diversity has always been about diversity

“At Domo, right after Mr. George Floyd was murdered, we rallied together. Before all this happened, we had been working in the background on some huge diversity and inclusion programs,” Walker recalls. “Suddenly the timing seemed very insensitive, but we still wanted to make sure that people understood that we saw what was happen ing and that we supported not only our employees but our customers, our neighbors, and our friends who are Black. We wanted to let them know that their lives matter.”

Despite her disappointment at the community’s reaction, Walker said that it created an opportunity to help people to better understand what Black Lives Matter is all about. “It’s an organization. It’s also a movement. It’s also a statement. There are these three different things circling around, so people get confused and offended,” she explains.

utah 32 2021Fall Black Lives Matter

WalkerNikkiofcourtesy(2)Photos of thought, and you can’t have diversity of Domo decided to run full-page ads in the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News with the declara tion that Black lives matter. They invited other Utah companies to join them, and within 48 hours, 260 businesses had also signed Domo’s statement. Then, ofdiversitywithoutthoughtpeople.”

Without question, diversity enriches people’s lives and strengthens communities. But with diversity of thought and experience comes diversity of opinions and beliefs, which can sometimes be polarizing. The death of George Floyd last summer and the Black Lives Matter protests that followed are a prime example.

Walker describes her diversity and inclusion efforts as “exhausting but worth it,” and she shows no sign of slowing down. “I found my purpose,” she says. “And right now, my purpose is to connect people and entities to each other so that everybody can win. I know what the communities have to offer, and it’s really awesome to watch it all come together.”

“The unfortunate plight of Black women, especially in this climate, is that we have to take our trauma and use it for good,” says Walker. “And the plight of my good girlfriends who happen to be White is to use their privilege for good. So, I’m going to use my trauma to teach. And I expect in return that my White girlfriends will use their privilege for good. If we can do that together, then we can really make a difference here.”

Getting Involved

Progress and Purpose To get where we need to be as a state, Walker understands that patience is key. “Progress is not as fast as people would like for it to be. We’ve spent the past 400 years as a country in racial turmoil, and it doesn’t turn around over one bloody summer,” she says. “But leadership is taking steps to make sure that this is not being swept under the rug, and I think that’s a big win.”

utah 33 2021Fall

And getting involved is something that is second nature for Walker. “My father was a Black Panther and also a Marine,” she says. “Service to the country and to the community was instilled in me from a young age. It was my dream to become a Marine, but because of my asthma, I wasn’t able to.” So, instead, Walker has become actively involved in several organizations throughout Utah, including sitting on the boards of Salt Lake Community College, The Children’s Center, and Salt Lake Academy of Music. She also serves as Utah County chair for the Utah Black Chamber of Commerce.

utah 34 2021Fall & HOPE page 34 u tah 2021Fall ACADEMY:OTHERTHESIDE SHARING

—DaviD Durocher, executive Director of the other SiDe acaDemy

LIVES BY TRANSFORMINGPEARCELORALIEPublishingIngrambylicensedPhoto

“I want to assert something bold right now. That is that even the most broken people can reinvent themselves and become somebody they have never known. It doesn’t matter if you’ve lived your life on the streets, been a life-long drug addict, or spent your life in and out of jails and prisons. Anyone can change. I know because I was one of those broken people.”

utah 36 2021Fall

Durocher would stay at Delancey Street for eight and a half years, but not all of them were as a student. After three and a half years, he knew that he was ready to reintegrate into the community. But he was given an opportunity of a lifetime, and he took “Theit.last five years I was in Delancey Street, I actually managed the LA facility. I was what they called the facilitator or the managing director, and I oversaw all 15 vocational training schools—all 200 residents,” says Durocher. “I managed the entire facility, and I did it for free. I was honored that avid Durocher is the exec utive director of The Other Side Academy—a residential rehabilitation program based in Salt Lake City. His road to this career he loves has been brutal and jagged; it has also been rewarding, joyful, and worth every drop of blood, sweat, and tears.

Delancey Street Delancey Street is a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco that offers residential rehabilitation services to substance abusers, ex-convicts, and others. The goal of Delancey Street is to help people “learn to lead a productive, crime-free, drug-free life of purpose and integrity.” Where most rehab pro grams are 30, 60, or 90 days long, Delancey Street’s model is 2 years or longer. Durocher didn’t care—2 years was better than 22. His intention was to only do the bare minimum, but something happened along the way that he did not expect. “Because [the program] is so long, because it’s behavior modi fication and not some doctor or therapist sitting around all day telling me what I need to change and what I’m doing wrong when I already know those things, [because] it was my peers blasting me for my behaviors until I changed those, I learned how to be an honest, accountable, contributing member of the community living a value-centered life of integrity,” Durocher explains.

“I was looking at a 22-year prison term, my fifth, and that was really humbling. I’d spent the majority of my adult life in there, and now I was going to die in there,” he recalls. “I was scared, broken, and I just needed to do something different. I heard of Delancey Street, and I wrote them. But I didn’t write them to change. I wrote them because it was my only hope of getting out from underneath the prison sentence.”

“I was a self-centered, heathenistic, gun-running, drug-dealing, out-of-control drug addict and criminal for nearly 25 years,” he says. “By the time I was 38, I had done 4 consecutive prison terms totaling almost 20 years. When I wasn’t in prison, I was on my way back.” It was on one of those roads back that Durocher made a decision that would transform his life.

utah 37 2021Fall [they] would ask me. I thought about my life prior to what I was doing and how much I loved what I was doing there [at Delancey Street], helping people get from where I once was to where I was at, and I said, ‘Absolutely, I’ll stay.’”

t he o ther Si D e a ca D emy Once Durocher started helping others, he never stopped. Flash forward to 2015 and the opening of The Other Side Academy (TOSA), and we find him, along with numerous others, helping the most lost among us. Based off the same model as Delancey Street, The Other Side Academy is a two-and-a-halfyear residential training academy for substance abusers, convicts, the homeless, and those who have hit rock-bottom and need help. “The program is available as an alternative to those facing long-term incarceration as well as those seeking a change from the life they’ve chosen in the past,” Durocher explains. The mission is “to create a therapeutic community available across the world, to all who need it.” And when they say “all,” they mean all. It is a goal of TOSA to never have to turn away someone who is fighting for their life. So, what makes TOSA’s rehabilitation program so unique? Three words: time, peers, cost. The Other Side Academy is 100 percent selfsufficient, meaning that the student doesn’t pay a dime—unlike the typical 30-, 60-, and 90-day rehab programs where often “the amount of help you get . is determined by how much money you have,” saysTheDurocher.OtherSide Academy is all about helping to change behavior. In Durocher’s words, “Drug addicts are liars, cheaters, thieves, manipulators, self-centered, self-seeking, human beings that don’t care about anybody. Who cares if they get clean and sober if they haven’t completely changed? If they’re clean and sober, but they leave the program and they are still sneaky, they’re still liars, and they are still living like a drug addict, then they’re going to use again.”

Research shows that the 30-, 60-, or 90-day models have a 3 to 5 percent success rate. The Other Side Academy’s model is long and difficult, but those who complete their two-and-a-half-year stay have an 82 percent success rate of being drugfree, crime-free, and employed. After three years, that success rate jumps to 91 percent. “The further you get that lifestyle behind you, the harder it is to go back because you’ve learned to live a new life,” Durocher says. t he r oa D to r ecovery So, how does the program work? “You write us a let ter from the county jail. We interview you, and we accept you. You get a letter of acceptance, and you take it to the judge. The judge can then sentence you to TOSA, but only if we’ve interviewed you. Or you can walk through the front door, take a seat on our bench, and ask for an interview,” Durocher explains. “We’ll interview you right then, and if we accept you, you need nothing.”

The Other Side Academy is a twoand-a-half-year residential training academy for substance abusers, convicts, the homeless, and those who have hit rock-bottom and need help.

TOSA has social enterprises that generate the revenue needed to run the program. They have a moving company, thrift store, storage company, and construction company. During the first few months at TOSA, freshmen will live in-house and work by cooking and cleaning. Once staff gets to know them better, they are assigned a job working for one of TOSA’s companies. As students continue to grow and become their better selves, they are given more responsibilities such as mentoring others in the program or becoming a staff member in training. After completing the program, they might even be hired on as staff.

While in the program, students do not receive a paycheck for their work. However, it is important to note that TOSA works with several businesses like Sweets Candy, Hughes General Contractors, and several others so that upon graduation, every single graduate is placed into a full-time job. These are jobs that pay a good living wage and offer health and retirement benefits. Graduates can also opt to work as paid staff for TOSA while continuing to live on the property, where they receive reduced rent and low-cost meals, and, of course, the camarade rie of The Other Side Academy community. This community of peers is at the heart of the program and has the most profound influence on every person who walks through TOSA’s doors.

utah 38 2021Fall

TOSA provides everything from clothing and food to housing and employment. Students live on the property in dorms, similar to a university setting. They also move through the ranks of freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior. After completing the initial two-and-a-half years, students can choose to leave or stay as long as they need. This is possible because TOSA is selfsufficient—they don’t take any money from the city, county, state, or federal government. They don’t take money from Medicaid or insurance companies either. Why is that important? “Because as soon as a student comes to us, whether it’s out of jail or off the streets, they’re responsible for generating a revenue,” Durocher explains. “They’re responsible for their own recovery.”

“At that time, I would put the game on Jane, and I would say, ‘Jane you had a bad attitude the other day. You made it hard to work. I don’t know why you’re so negative when you came here to be some body different. Don’t you want to change that?’” she explains. “So, I would address her behavior in that game setting, and then somebody else would chime in with, ‘Jane, I noticed that you lied the other day.’ As we address the behavior in that game setting, Jane can either sit back and say, ‘Okay, I’m here to change. I’m being humble. I’m going to take accountability for this, and I’m going to fix it.’ Or she can say, ‘You’re wrong. That isn’t who I am.’”

utah 39 2021Fall c ommunity an D c onnection

“When you come to TOSA, we put you in real-life situations. Everybody has a job from eight to five, and everybody is working on taking accountability and holding others accountable for their behavior. While you’re working, these behaviors come out, and your peers call you on it.”

Tori, a former student and current staff member, has learned firsthand why this model changes lives.

a week, students go into a “game setting” with about 23 of their peers. It is in this setting that they hold each other accountable.

But what if there is a disagreement about the comments? “Then we’d get mentorship, and we’d This community of peers is at the heart of the program and has the most profound influence on every person who walks through The Other Side Academy’s doors.

She continues, “So, say Jane is [being] negative today. I would say, ‘Jane, they asked us to have a positive attitude.’ Her response can only be, ‘Okay,’ because [at TOSA] there’s no conflict allowed on the floorToriwhatsoever.”saysthattwice

utah 40 2021Fall get guidance on that, and we would say, ‘From the feedback in the game setting and talking with your peers and your mentors, Jane, you are like that. Let’s work through that. Let’s help you through this because this is what your peers are seeing,’” saysIt’sTori.not always easy to be positive, even in the best of circumstances, but TOSA students are taught to try to make the best of each situation. “We have a belief called ‘act as if’—act as if you’re happy until it becomes you. You put that smile on and you get through your workday, and I’m telling you that it makes you a better person in the end. That change of behavior—thinking and acting differently—helps you teach the next person coming in,” says Tori. “You can say, ‘Hey, I’ve been through this. I know what you’re going through. I know what it’s like to have a bad attitude every day. Let me show you how I got through it.’ That’s where the mentorship comes in. That’s how we address behavior and get people to change.”

There are no doctors, clinicians, or therapists who work at TOSA. Everybody who works at The Other Side Academy is an ex-criminal or ex-drug addict or somebody who has been homeless and just gotten their life together. This is by design. “It is called experiential overlap, and the reason it works is because you are being mentored and held accountable by peers—peers who can connect with you on a visceral level, heart to heart, human to human,” says Durocher. It is the visceral connection that inspires people to fix themselves. It is the heart to heart that enables those who are lost to be found. It is the human to human that helps students to “reinvent themselves and become somebody they have never known.” It is the combination that makes The Other Side Academy so unique and so successful. For Durocher, TOSA represents the culmination of a life changed and the beginning of a wonderful life journey helping others. “I spent the first half of my life helping people to die,” he says. “I intend to spend the rest of it helping them to live.” Visit theothersideacademy.com to learn more.

“That change of behavior— thinking and acting differently—helps you teach the next person coming in.”

THE OTHER SIDE VILLAGE

The Other Side’s next big adventure is the creation of The Other Side Village—a permanent, tiny-home community in Salt Lake City for men and women coming out of chronic homelessness. Their goal is to build up to 40 homes by March 2022. To learn how you can donate, volunteer, or get involved in other ways, please visit theothersidevillage.com.

“I remember thinking, ‘This is going to be public, and I wish I could just keep it to myself.’ I didn’t like the world watching me get punched in the stomach,” Jennie recalls.

utah 2021Fall page 41

According to protocol, Jennie was supposed to have 24 hours of privacy before they released

Becoming Legacy Makera

When Jennie Taylor became a military widow, she was thrown into the spotlight as she and her seven children grieved the loss of their husband and father. Now, she is building upon her husband’s legacy of patriotism and service by investing in future leaders, honoring military families, and finding opportunities to bring the community together.

BY KAREN PAINTER

O n November 3, 2018, Jennie Taylor’s life changed forever. Her husband, Major Brent Taylor, was killed near Kabul by an Afghan soldier that he was training. He was a member of the Utah Army National Guard and the mayor of North Ogden—the first sitting U.S. politi cian to be killed in action since the Civil War.

The couple married in September 2003. Five months later, Brent left for bootcamp and was gone for a year.

Creating a l ega C y

utah 42 2021Fall

As a military widow, Jennie says that she’s seen things that most of America has not. “I’ve been to Dover Air Force Base in the middle of the night and watched as they transferred my husband’s casket. I’ve been given a flag by a general at my husband’s funeral,” she says. “Most of America sees it in a movie, or maybe they read it in a book or an article, but I’ve lived that. I feel compelled to tell that story because of my background and my husband’s background.”ButJennie understands that her experience is not hers alone. “It’s not just my story—it’s America’s. And the flags we fly are for hundreds of years’ worth of people who, unfortunately, like me, have buried someone like that,” she says. “I feel like God has put me in a position to be a voice, too. I didn’t ask for it. I certainly didn’t see it coming.”

a l i F e o F Servi C e Jennie met Brent in college in 2003 on a blind date. “We started talking, and I felt a connection,” Jennie recalls. “Brent was a very driven, ambitious, and impressive young man. When he first told me that he wanted to join the military (on our first date!), my stomach hit the floor. I had never considered myself a possible military spouse! But as we contin ued to date and plan our future together, he had my support 100 percent.”

Brent’s name to the news. But by 2 p.m., half the city was on her front porch.

In the years since her husband’s death, Jennie has often found herself in a position to speak about the price of freedom, the value of community support, and the healing that comes by choosing to find hope and happiness despite life’s heartaches. Then she decided to give even more of herself. On July 6, 2019, in honor of what would have been her husband’s 40th birthday, she established the Major Brent Taylor Foundation. The mission of the foundation is to train, honor, and engage. “There is a lot of overlap, lots of distinction, but the biggest thing is helping people to become a legacy maker,” she explains. “Brent left us a legacy, and it is our job to now create a legacy and pass it on.” a n a meri C an Story Megan Taylor, the oldest of the Taylor’s seven children, rolled her eyes last spring when the family was asked to come to another patriotic event in Washington, D.C. “Haven’t we already done that?” she“Meg,asked.this is going to be a part of your life for the rest of your life,” Jennie responded. “You can be irritated that people want to keep talking to you about this, or you can do what I’ve chosen to do, which is to see myself in the middle of the American story.”

While Jennie doesn’t like the spotlight, she has cho sen to embrace it as a way to honor her husband and their seven children. She reads her husband’s journals and finds motivation in them. He wrote about how soldiers in Korea and Vietnam inspired him. When he thought bootcamp or deployment was hard, he wrote, “This may be hard, but it’s nothing like they faced. How can I hold my head up when I meet them after I die? How can I say, ‘Sorry yours was hard, but I gave up.’”

utah 43 2021Fall

“Our entire first year of marriage we wrote letters and sometimes, if we were lucky, he’d get a phone call privilege. It was strange because I was married but single,” Jennie recalls.Over Brent’s 15-year mili tary career, he deployed to the Middle East four times. In 2007, he served in Bosil, Iraq, and then elected to serve another year in Baghdad after learning that they were shorthanded.

Brent got into politics in 2009 when he campaigned for the North Ogden City Council. He was elected and served for two years—all while actively serving in the Utah National Guard and pursuing a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Utah. Then he deployed again in 2012, this time to Kunduz, Afghanistan. When he returned in 2013, he finished his master’s degree and then started a doctorate in international relations—all while campaigning for mayor. He was elected as mayor of North Ogden in 2014 and served until 2017 when a deployment opportunity presented itself. “Brent hadn’t deployed since 2012. We didn’t even talk about deployment anymore. It shocked both of us,” Jennie recalls.The deployment was to Afghanistan to train soldiers. They were shorthanded and needed people. According to Jennie, Brent felt uniquely qualified to take this mission because he had done it before.

“Brent always felt there was more he could do, no matter how much he did. He didn’t feel like he could say, ‘No, I’m done. I’ve done too much,’” she says. “We were seven months pregnant with our seventh baby when we found out about the deployment. It was crazy because he had to take a leave of absence, which meant the whole city knew he was leaving. Many people were shocked, but we were united.”

utah 44 2021Fall

t raining Future l ea D er S

“I wanted to choose young people who know that service is the key to leadership and who are motivated by what motivated Brent: serving, sacri ficing, and leading,” Jennie explains.

In the future, Jennie sees the foundation holding leadership workshops for military personnel who want to get into politics. “I think it would benefit our country so much,” she says. “Fifty years ago, many people in Congress had served in the military, but that’s not true anymore.”

Continuing the l ega C y Now, Jennie is doing all that she can to build upon Brent’s legacy of patriotism and service through the Major Brent Taylor Foundation. The logo Jennie picked for the foundation is an oak leaf cluster—the symbol for the rank of major in the U.S. Army. The seven points on the oak leaf represent the seven Taylor children.

“I hope to inspire people to live their own legacy,” she says. “Yours is different than mine, and mine is different than yours.”

Kiersten Cragun, who graduated from Weber State University with a degree in public relations and communications, started working at the foundation in January. “Jennie exudes joy,” she says. “She is a strong person but also very humble. She is the kind of woman I want to be—especially how she balances her time with her children and the foundation.”

In August of 2018, Brent was able to come home on leave. It would be the last time that his family would see him alive.“It was awesome,” says Jennie. “We played with the kids and took a vacation. It was a wonderful two weeks.” After Brent returned to Afghanistan and the kids went back to school, Jennie felt like the time until Brent’s release in January would go fast. The weeks went by quickly until Halloween—Jennie’s birthday. “It had been so hard,” she recalls. “I felt like I had been humbled and refined. I remember thinking, ‘I am a better person now than I have ever been.’ I didn’t worry about Brent because I was so worried about our family. Then the unthinkable happened.”

The foundation has established two scholarships for graduating high school seniors in Brent’s name: one at Weber High School in North Ogden (Jennie’s alma mater), and one at Chandler High School in Chandler, Arizona (Brent’s alma mater). At each high school, these $1,000 scholarships are awarded to one young man and one young woman with a history of service and leadership.

h onoring m ilitary Familie S

The second mission of the foundation seeks to honor military families by identifying, celebrating, and remembering their bravery and sacrifice.

The foundation has also created an endowed scholarship of $75,000 with the University of Utah and $62,500 with Brigham Young University. The scholarship at BYU is awarded to an undergraduate majoring in political science, and the scholarships at the University of Utah are for a graduate student pursuing a master of public administration and for a Ph.D. candidate from within the college of social and behavioral sciences. The award amount will vary depending on the return of the endowment’s investment, but last year, two BYU students received a year of half tuition, and the students at the University of Utah received a couple of thou sand dollars each.

“I wanted to choose young people who know that service is the key to leadership and who are motivated by what motivated Brent: serving, sacrificing, and leading.”

The mission of the Major Brent Taylor Foundation is to train, honor, and engage. Over the past few years, foundation members have raised more than $135,000 in scholarships to help train current and future leaders. These scholarships are for students who have an interest in following one of Brent’s academic paths.

The third part of the foundation’s mission is to engage with community members through cultural and performing arts events.

To learn more, visit majorbrenttaylor.com.

The foundation also places flags at funerals and other community events. In 2021, they placed flags at the dedication at the new Vietnam War Dog Memorial in Layton, and in 2020, they helped with the funeral of Air Force pilot Kade Allen from Brigham City, and with the funeral of Nate Lyday, a young Ogden police officer killed in the line of duty.

“Events that brought people together is what Brent loved most about being mayor, like the concerts or the chalk art festival,” says Jennie. “He loved to see people engaged in service and coming together.”Themost recent project for Jennie and the foundation was called Weber Remembers. It was a coalition with the Weber County Sheriff’s Office, local businesses, community members, city governments, and police and fire departments. The event was a walk-through memorial to commem orate the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terroristJohnnyattacks.Ferry, vice president of business for Honeyville, Inc., designed a living exhibit for the event based on his experiences visiting the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York“I’veCity.been to the 9/11 museum many times. I wanted to do something to bring the idea back here with pictures, sights, sounds, and videos,” he says. “The goal was to bring the community together. Regardless of our political and other backgrounds, we can all connect because we are Americans.”

ngaging W ith the Community

The foundation also honors military families and others with their Christmas Magic program. “It started with one woman with three little kids, whose husband was deployed in the Air Force. I told her we wanted to help her with Christmas for her children. It was one less thing she should have to worry about,” says Jennie. The program grew, and last Christmas the foundation gathered gifts for 25 families.

utah 45 2021Fall

The foundation has already created the Gold Star Families Memorial Monument in North Ogden. Other memorials in St. George and Pleasant View are under construction and will be completed in November.

Bringing people together is what Jennie hopes she can spend the rest of her life doing, especially in her hometown.

Bringing people together is what Jennie hopes she can spend the rest of her life doing, especially in her hometown. “I feel like I’ve inherited Brent’s life,” she says. “God has been so good to us in this tragedy. Incredible things have happened. My kids are growing up without their father, but he’s not gone—not really. I hope to inspire them to live their own legacy. I hope they will figure out their missions in life and then just be awesome at it.”

“These beautiful monuments honor military families and are symbolic of the ultimate sacrifice made by military members in service to their country,” says Jennie. “They stand as a reminder to those families that our communities will never forget their sacrifice.”

J en Smart has always been a Lego kid, receiving her first set for Christmas when she was 6 years old. But when she grew up and started a family, she had to forgo her beloved building bricks for a time. “I packed my Legos away for a bit when I got married and when my kids were little,” she says. “I was just waiting for the time when I could pull them all out and we could play again.”

Susan Earls, on the other hand, didn’t venture into the world of Legos until she started buying them for her 5-year-old son. “I was just buying more and more. At that point, I was just buying them for myself,” she laughs. “That’s really how I got my start.”

utah 2021Fall page 46

Lego Master Moms

Two mothers from American Fork are out to show the world that Lego bricks aren’t just for kids. This summer, the duo competed on season two of Fox’s hit TV show Lego Masters, where their original creations were judged each week against the creations of other Lego enthusiasts.

BY KIERSTYNN KING

For Earls and Smart, they can spend days, weeks, or even months creating their indi vidual designs—a luxury that they didn’t have on the show.

“I think the transition happens when you [go from] building a set you have instructions for to creating something of your own—an image you see in your head,” Smart says. “You’re thinking, ‘Oh, what would this tree look like in Lego? This building? This train?’ Then you’re wondering, ‘Can I do it?’ Then you’re fiddling with the parts trying to see if you can create what you see in your head.”

Earls says that the expert Modular series that Lego creates helped sparked the inspiration for creating her own buildings and trains. Smart has always loved creating landscapes and draws inspiration from the space sets she used to build as a child. She also creates statues and portraits and has been influenced by fellow Lego artists such as Nathan Sawaya and Sean Kenney. Her favorite creation, a 6-foot-tall Wonder Woman statue, was recently displayed at SCERA Center for the Arts in Orem.ForEarls, one of her favorite things about Legos is the colors. “Right now, my favorite kind of Lego color is the bright orange,” she says. “I think in recent years Lego has really expanded on their color palette. They’re making earthier tones, which is great.” One of Smart’s favorite things about Legos is the infinite possibilities of what she can create. “The colors and shapes are fantastic, but the possibilities just blow my mind,” she says.

“You’re thinking, ‘Oh, what would this tree look like in Lego? This building? This train?’ Then you’re wondering, ‘Can I do it?’ Then you’re fiddling with the parts trying to see if you can create what you see in your head.”

Earl says of the experience, “Sometimes it doesn’t even feel real yet. It’s starting to sink in now, but I was just so shocked.” “It’s surreal. It is insane,” Smart adds. “It was a great wave to ride on.”

Buil D ing a Frien DS hip Smart and Earls met through the Utah Lego User Group (ULUG), where they progressed from building Lego sets with their families to merging sets together to creating original masterpieces.

Competing on Lego Masters This season on Lego Masters, Smart and Earls competed against 11 other two-person teams—and they were one of only two female-female teams. The show is hosted by Will Arnett, and judges Amy Corbett and Jamie Berard evaluate the teams’ creations, eliminating one duo each week.

“On Lego Masters, you had a certain time frame, which is a different element than we’re used to,” Smart says. “When we’re building, we’re used to being able to take a break and mull things over. On Lego Masters, you have zero time for any of that. You’re all in 100 percent of the time, and you just have to throw those bricks together and hope it works.”

utah 47 2021Fall

“Visually they look great, but I would be surprised if they didn’t come off fairly early,” he Ultimately,said.

The duo was eliminated in the sixth episode, “Demolition Derby.” The challenge was to create a wild remote-control concept vehicle and battle it out against the other teams’ creations. Judges Amy Corbett and Jamie Berard were looking for aesthet ics and strength for this challenge. The teams had six hours to complete their machine, and Earls and Smart created a tractor called “Muscle Sprouts.”

During the challenge, the duo made remarks about their time management and how they weren’t feeling confident in finishing this challenge. After their six hours were up, the judges reviewed each team’s builds before the derby began.

utah 48 2021Fall

“The colors and shapes are fantastic, but the possibilities just blow my mind.”

Corbett said that she loved how Earls and Smart’s creation looked like it was taken out of a kids’ toy box.

While Berard loved the blade design, he wondered how strong the blades were going to be during the derby portion.

Earls and Smart were“Youeliminated.hadanice overall vehicle but were missing some of the details and story touches that we saw in the other teams’

contestants on the screen was phenomenal. I was cheering and hollering. It was a lot of fun.”

utah 49 2021Fallbuilds,” said Corbett. “The coolest parts of the build were the blades on the front and back of the vehicle, but they were destroyed really quickly in the derby, leaving a more basic build.”

Outside of Lego Masters, both women are active in the Lego community. In August, they attended Brick Slopes—A Lego Fan Event at the Mountain America Expo Center in Sandy. “It’s a really awe some community and support network to be a part of,” Smart says. To see more Lego masterpieces, follow @ JenRaineSmart on Instagram and Facebook.

Cli C king W ith the Community Smart and Earls were able to watch the first episode of the season with their friends, family, and community in one of the theaters at SCERA Center for the Arts. “To see ourselves on that big of a screen was crazy,” Smart says. “Seeing the other

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According to Shauna K. Brown, executive director of Project Read, illiteracy is a silent problem. More than 28,000 adults in Utah County read below a

Many adults struggle with literacy—a skill that we often take for granted. Thankfully, Project Read Utah offers free help with reading and writing, with the goal of eliminating illiteracy in Utah County. KIERSTYNN KING

Changing Lives Through Literacy

I n 1984, Project Read Utah launched with the goal of providing one-on-one tutoring services to adults with low-level literacy skills, thereby strengthening families, improving communities, and breaking the generational cycle of illiteracy.

a Silent p ro B lem

Operating out of the Provo City Library, the orga nization envisions a literate Utah County where everyone has access to learning opportunities that enable them to reach their full potential.

“We consider Project Read a bridge or a transition program,” Brown explains. “Most people don’t just want to learn how to read—they want to learn how to read for a specific reason, whether it’s for better employment or wanting to help their kids.” The organization also helps students from other coun tries to prepare for the Test of English as a Foreign Language to help them get into college. Most students stay with Project Read until they are at about a 9th grade reading level. After that, they can go on to an adult high school program or job training programs. “Once they reach that level, we feel like they’re not learning to read. At that point, they’re ready to use their reading skills to learn other things,” says Brown.

Each year, Project Read works with about 100 adult literacy students to complete about three hours of tutoring per week, usually in the form of two 90-minute sessions or one 3-hour session.

“Most people don’t just want to learn how to read—they want to learn how to read for a specific reason, whether it’s for better employment or wanting to help their kids.”

“The main reason why I stayed is because I just love my student,” she says. “We’ve become good friends. We’ve spent three hours a week together for the past seven years.” McDowell and her student do a variety of activ ities together such as reading, writing, grammar practice, vocabulary practice, and comprehension practice. One of McDowell’s favorite memories is when she read The Diary of Anne Frank with her student. “Obviously, that’s a very challenging book,” she says. “For my student, it was one of the first books she read that was meaningful and impactful for her. I feel like that was a turning point for us, where she realized that reading can open her mind to other cultures and ideas.”

“A big issue that we see with literacy is that it links to chronic health issues,” says Brown. “For example, adults with low literacy skills struggle to manage their diabetes because there’s so much reading that’s involved with managing the dis ease. Once people improve their literary skills, their health improves because they’re able to understand the health system and see their primary care doctor.”

De D i C ate D v olunteer S

From Wel F are to Su CC e SSF ul Bu S ine SS oW ner

Dedicated volunteers like Jessica McDowell play an indispensable role in the organization’s success. “I came across Project Read at a time when I didn’t have a lot going on,” she says. McDowell planned to be a volunteer tutor for about a year, but seven years later, she is still going strong.

During their seven years together, McDowell has seen her student get her driver’s license, start classes at Utah Valley University, and develop a love for English classes. “Seeing her progress in that way has been really meaningful and rewarding for me,” she says.

Brown initially started out as volunteer tutor at Project Read. “My student was a young mom with two little girls. We would meet in the Orem Library. She was so passionate and incredibly smart, but she couldn’t read, so that was holding her back,” she recalls. The woman was determined to get off of public assistance and provide for her daughters. Twenty-one years later, Brown’s former student now runs her own business in Pleasant Grove with several employees, and both of her daughters are college graduates. She also has two grandchildren. “I know that both of her grandchildren are going to know how to read because their grandma thought it was import ant,” says Brown.

utah 51 2021Fall 4th-grade level, and about 12 percent of adults in Utah County—nearly 50,000—can’t read at Fundedall. largely by dona tions and a few government grants, Project Read is working hard to help adults become lit erate by teaching basic reading and writing skills, including how to use technology. These vital skills help their students handle everyday situations more effectively.

Project Read also helps immigrants learn English and navigate a new culture. Anna Baasanbyamba emigrated from Mongolia to the United States. Before attending Project Read, she was a single mom going through a divorce. “At the time, I was trying to adapt to the American culture and the language. My English wasn’t that great,” she recalls. She first learned about Project Read when she saw a flyer on the community bulletin board while she was at the Provo City Library with her children.

Baasanbyamba says that Project Read not only helped her with her English but also helped her in her personal life. “There were a lot of forms and documents that I had to fill out due to my divorce. They helped me comprehend what I was reading and helped me fill out legal forms,” she says. Baasanbyamba was a student a Project Read for about 10 months. When she first joined the pro gram, she was performing at a 7th-grade comprehension level, but by the time she graduated, she was performing at almost a 10th-grade comprehension level. Since completing the program, she has graduated from BYU–Idaho with her bachelor’s degree in business management. And she is getting ready to graduate from Utah Valley University with a master’s degree in finance and planning analytics. After seeing her daugh ter’s incredible Baasanbyamba’ssuccess,mother also enrolled in Project Read. “My mom was really excited for me when I graduated from Project Read. She now wants to improve her English and is really excited to be a student.”

To volunteer, donate, or get help, visit projectreadutah.org.

t ran SF orming Communitie S Project Read changes lives, but it also benefits the community as a whole. According to Brown, adults who improve their literacy skills are able to get off of public assistance, find better employment, and spend more money, which directly impacts the economy. There is also a link between low literacy and crime. The Literacy Center states that 75 percent of incarcerated adults in state prison lack a high school diploma or have low literacy skills.

utah 52 2021Fall a Whole n e W Worl D

“Since English is my second language, I always feel like I need to be improving my English. I’m always looking for ways to improve myself,” says Baasanbyamba. “Project Read was great for me because of the one-on-one tutoring and the fact that it could work with my schedule.”

“The prisons are doing a lot of work to try and increase literacy levels because the chances of recidivism and ending up back in prison decrease,” Brown explains. “Literacy is just tied to so many other things in society.”Brown says that improving literacy helps create a ripple effect because people can gain the necessary skills to help improve their lives. “Our students are so passionate and smart. They want to be successful, yet they’re just missing this key piece for whatever reason,” she says. “When we can help them improve these skills, everyone benefits.”

Adults who improve their literacy skills are able to get off of public assistance, find better employment, and spend more money, which directly impacts the economy.

Fa S t Fa C t 43% of adults with low literacy live below the poverty line.

“ T he Page Company was a happy accident,” says Jordan Page. Her husband, Bubba, had started a business in college, so initially her role was to support him. Even though they had both always been frugal, when they had their first child, they had a meager income. “We were living off credit cards and sweet dreams. It got real and scary when kids got in the picture,” she recalls.

BY RANDY SCOTT

Ten years ago, when Jordan Page decided to start a blog to share some of the ideas she had learned about budgeting and saving money, she never would have imagined that it would turn out to be a multimillion-dollar business that would provide for her family and help hundreds of thousands of people to not only manage their budgets but to also build stronger families.

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Fun, Cheap, or Free Page went online looking for information about budgeting, but she couldn’t relate to anyone she found. She also tried talking to friends about

In the Business of Strengthening Families

From h o BB y to Bu S ine SS After about a year and a half of blogging, Bubba installed Google Analytics on the blog site, and they discovered that hundreds of thousands of people were reading Jordan’s blog. Bubba thought that they should figure out a way to monetize the site. Initially, Jordan was resistant to turning her hobby into a business, but when Bubba explained how she could help more people by making it a business, she agreed.Bubba started working with Jordan at the Page Company on the side in 2018. He eventu ally sold his business in 2020, which afforded him the opportunity to work with Jordan full time at the PageToday,Company.thePage Company’s mission is to build stronger families, and Jordan encourages people to define “family” in whatever way works best for their individual situations. The Pages focus on knowl edge and tools to help save time, save money, and build stronger family relationships. They currently have two professional blogs, a line of budget and productivity planners, and online courses. They also host live events and retreats.

utah 54 2021Fall finances, but they didn’t want to discuss their mortgages or debt.“I decided to do it my way and created ways to manage our money,” she says. “We paid off about $15,000 of debt in the same year that Bubba only made about $31,000. The interesting thing is that it wasn’t that bad.” Page started a blog called Fun, Cheap, or Free as a hobby so that she could share all the tips and tricks that she was learning. But she worried that she wasn’t getting to the root of helping people solve their money problems. She wanted to quit, but her husband said, “Don’t quit. Do it your own way.” So, she did. “When I did it differently, it started to take off,” she recalls. “I talked about all the stuff that other people didn’t want to talk about.”

The Page Company currently has 19 employees, most of whom are work-at-home mothers. Jordan’s audience continues to grow, and today she has Jordan’s continuesaudiencetogrow, and today she has about one million followers on social media.

So, what advice does Jordan offer when it comes starting a family business and, partic ularly, working with your spouse?“First, that’s awe some that you want to start a business with your spouse! Second, are you sure? If you’re going to do it, don’t do it alone. Get a third person as a moderator,” she says. “When it’s your ideas against his, that’s when it gets hard. Working with your spouse is the best, but it’s also one of the hardest things you’ll ever do. Our marriage has beenShetested.”continues, “I remem ber one time I said, ‘This is not working.’ We decided to hire a VP of operations, and it changed our lives. It allowed us to be the dreamers and have someone else handle the hard stuff. We are now stronger than ever and absolutely love work ing together. It has been a huge blessing for us.”

3. If you have a really engaged audience, know what their pain points are and what they want, and then build that for them—it works out.

When asked about the lessons that she has learned while growing her company over the years, Jordan shared four powerful insights:

4. The principles of budgeting, time management, and productivity apply regardless of your financial situation.

2. Work comes third, behind God and family.

Even with the incredible growth, Jordan says that 2020 was a time of focusing on family. The same week that the COVID-19 restrictions began taking place, Jordan and Bubba had twins—that’s 8 children within 10 years, with 5 kids under age 5!

The final piece of advice that Jordan gives is to create lifestyle goals first and business goals second. In other words, create a business that supports your lifestyle. How many hours do you want to work a week? What do you want your family dynamic to look like? What do you want your marriage to look like? “If 2020 has taught us one thing, it’s that nothing is guaranteed,” she says. “Build a business to support your lifestyle, not the other wayToaround.”learnmore, visit funcheaporfree.com.

The Pages focus on knowledge and tools to help save time, save money, and build stronger family relationships.

utah 55 2021Fall about one million followers on social media. She has been featured on Good Morning America, Today, and on many other media outlets, and The Page Company was also listed on the 2020 Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies.

1. You can build a miniempire part time and still put family first.

“We learned to simplify during COVID-19. We canceled everything,” Jordan says. l e SS on S l earne D

1. Worl D ’ S Be S t Corn D og S

Are you a crazed food truck addict? Then this article is for you! The modern food truck movement began in San Francisco in 2008 and has taken the nation by storm ever since. The idea is that you offer a single item, do it better than anyone else, and take your show on the road. Many would-be restaurateurs develop a following with their food trucks until they can establish a brick-and-mortar location, but many still keep their trucks moving! Here are five of my favorites to whet your appetite to find your next Utah food adventure!

BY MARY CRAFTS

Get ready for the world’s best corndog! These quarter-pound, 100-percent pure beef dogs are hand dipped in a secret recipe batter and then deep fried to golden perfection. They offer the usual condiments, but the absolute mind-blowing best is the honey drizzle—wow! Also on the menu is their popular smoked cheddar brat and their heavenly cheese sticks made with Tillamook Colby Jack and Pepper Jack cheese. Visit worldsbestcorndogs.com to find a truck near you.

This Korean barbecue in a cup is another long-standing food truck that can be found all over the state. The large variety of bowls is one of the reasons I like this truck so much. I can get spicy or mild. I can choose from chicken, beef, pork, or tofu. And there is even an option for fried potstickers! The bowls all come with noodles, rice, cabbage salad, and a variety of condiments. Definitely a full meal in a bowl! Go to cupbop.com to see their current food truck schedule.

Mary’s Fab 5: Food Trucks

+ page 56 utah 2021Fall Column: Mary’s f ab 5

2. Cup B op

4. Capitol Burger

5. San Dia B lo a rti S an Churro S

utah 2021Fall 57

The name says that they are from the devil, but trust me—they are heaven sent! These artisan churros have lots of filling to choose from, but what really sets them apart is the selection of cinnamon sugars. You can have the traditional one, but I recommend stepping out of your comfort zone to try something different like the fiery Diablo sugar! The churros are fried to order, so they are always soft and fresh! They post their food truck schedule on Instagram, so be sure to follow them at @sandiablochurros.

3. Wa FF le l ove

The true food truck aficionado will travel anywhere to feed their addiction. And so it is with me. I drive to Torrey just to have one of Luke’s incredible burgers. He was one of Salt Lake City’s best executive chefs and left it all to sell burgers on small-town Main Street. My favorite is the mac n cheese burger, but come hungry or share. It doesn’t hurt that Torrey is next to my favorite hiking hangout—Capitol Reef National Park. Follow them on Facebook or Instagram at @capitolburgertruck for updates on their food truck locations.

This customer favorite was one of Utah’s first food trucks and has not only stood the test of time but now has multiple store locations to purchase these delicious waffles. The melt-in-your-mouth Belgian waffles have the special addition of pearl sugar, which creates a unique sugar crunch on the outside and a soft, creamy texture on the inside. The choices of toppings—from fruit to chocolate to whipped cream to caramel—will keep you coming back for more! Find a truck near you at waffluv.com.

r ea S on S v S . e x C u S e S Right answers are critical, but they don’t necessarily solve the problem. The answer “Don’t drink and drive” is right, yet many people still drive drunk. Which means the better question is: “Why must you drive right now?” followed by, “Is there another form of transportation?” This produces a better answer: “Because I haven’t been drinking, I will help you get to where you are going Questionssafely.”beginning with “why” and “who” are more emotionally charged than “what” or “how” questions because “why” and “who” questions are historical in nature. They take us back in time. “Why did this hap pen? Why must you drive drunk now? Who screwed up?” These questions plead for reasons, but they breed excuses. We all despise excuses and get annoyed when others use them on us, but the fault is usually with the one asking the questions. When we ask a “why or who” question, they are simply answering the question we asked.

BY DAN CLARK

Life is filled with complexity. Are you asking the right questions to solve your problems and get where you want to go?

Notice that these inquiries invite people to live in the present, encouraging positive statements about how things can be done better in the future. Notice that these questions are not about how to be a different person but about how to become more of who and what we already are. Although the past is some times a wonderful place to visit, it is a debilitating place to live. Living in the past dilutes our energy, makes us fatigued and unable to stay productive at work, triggers regret, and often leads to chronic stress, depression, and

Future- o riente D q ue S tion S Instead of asking people to live in the past, we should ask future-oriented questions like, “How can we fix this?” or “What can we do right now to stop the decline and turn this around?”

+ page 58 utah 2021Fall

Questionsbeginning with “why” and “who” are more emotionally charged than “what” or “how” questions because “why” and “who” questions are historical in nature.

Column: t he l ast w ord

n every situation, the person who asks the questions is in complete control of the conversation. You can get wrong answers from negative questions. You can get wrong answers from positive questions. But you can’t get right answers from the wrong questions. And even when we do get the right answers, they are not always the solution.

It’s All About the Questions

utah 2021Fall 59 anger—which, in reality, is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Absurd!

+ Dan Clark is a Hall of Fame speaker and The New York Times best-selling author of The Art of Significance.

Instead of asking people to live in the past, we should ask questionsfuture-orientedlike,“How can we fix this?” or “What can we do right now to stop the decline and turn this around?”

PublishingIngrambylicensedIllustration

a lWay S Some W here e l S e Driving forward while staring into the rearview mirror is unsafe, irresponsible, and distracts us from focusing on the present road conditions and the direction in which we are heading. So why should we live our lives this way and diminish from the here and now? Living in the future is equally debilitating because it triggers anxiety, fear, and worse—the ambiguous “must-be-better-thannow” mindset. I am as guilty of this as anyone. There was a time in my life when my sole purpose was to be somewhere else. In the 7th grade, I remember thinking, “When I’m finally a 9th-grader, I will be somebody!” Then, as a senior in high school, I thought, “I can’t wait to get out of here. Then I’ll focus on school.” It continued with, “When I grad uate and get my dream job, I’ll finally feel good about myself,” and “If I could just get married, then I’d finally be happy and feel complete.”No!Ifwe are not happy single, then we will never be happy married. If we are not the best 7th-grader we can be, we might not even make it to the 8th and 9th grade! l iving in the p re S ent French philosopher Pascal said, “Too many live their lives hoping to be happy, but because they only hope, they never really are.” They are waiting for someone to ask them to the prom and haven’t even taken the time to learn how to dance!When we live for the future, we build grand expectations. We put years of happiness on a single moment, and in doing so, we set ourselves up for inevitable disappointment.Bottomline:Living in the past is ridiculous because there is nothing that we can do to change it. And our future depends on what we do in the present. So, the key question, which is always the right question, is: Where are you right now? It’s like requesting an Uber ride that requires you to enter in your current location. If you lie about where you are, the directions won’t work! The present is called the present because it’s a precious gift that we cannot afford to waste! Today, you have never been this old before. And today, you will never be this young again. So, right now matters, and every “right now” matters. The power to become is found in living where you are—right now—and asking the right questions so you can live in the present time. Keep on keeping on, because in two more days, tomorrow will be yesterday!

+ utah 2021Fall page 60 g ood n ews by the nUM bers Diversity and Inclusion When people of different races, cultures, genders, and sexual orientations share ideas and work together, the results can be amazing. Check out these fascinating facts about diversity and inclusion. Year when the U.S. is predicted to no longer have a single ethnic or racial majority To learn about one woman’s mission to improve diversity and inclusion in Utah, turn to p. 28 companiesflowHigher2.3xcashthatdiverseenjoyperemployee 67% Job candidates who seek out companies with a diverse and inclusive culture inclusivecomparedcompaniesMore1.7xinnovationthatinclusiveenjoytolesscompanies 44.2% Millennials who classify themselves as non-Caucasian 7.4% CEOs of Fortune 500 companies who are women 21% Increased likelihood of executivegender-diverseteamstooutperformon profitability 78% People who believe that diversity and inclusion offer a competitive business advantage 85% CEOs with diverse and culturesinclusivewho noticed increased profits 43% Companies with diverse boards that reported higher profits 57% Employees who think their company should be doing more to increase diversity 41% Managers who say that they are too busy to implement any kind of diversity or inclusion initiatives 2065 PublishingIngrambylicensedPhoto

I am richwithtodayautumn’s gold. —Gladys Harper u tah h igh n ote Photo by Drew a rmstrong | @travels F romutah +

Good News Utah Magazine—Fall 2021

Articles inside

Mary’s Fab 5: Food Trucks

From Refugee to Philanthropist How One Utah Teen Is Giving

Changing Lives Through

Lego Master Moms

In the Business of

3 Ways to Enjoy the Good

The Anonymous Note That United a Community

Becoming a Legacy Maker

Helping Actors with Autism Shine