2013
Feb. 28 - March 6
VERITAS
7
: SMART - FROM PAGE 6
Fall and early spring are the most popular speaking times, with visits to schools and organizations. “If you asked me twelve years ago if I’d be doing public speaking, I probably would’ve laughed at you,” she said. “If I had not had this experience, I would probably be a harp teacher…but I’m kind of glad I’m not doing that, because I had a student once, and I found out that I’m a much better student than teacher.” After completion of high school, Smart attended Brigham Young University where she studied harp performance. She has also been instrumental in the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, which works to prevent child abuse. One little known fact the foundation tries to promote is that child pornography is the fastest growing crime in the world.
The foundation works with advocacy and prevention groups. They have a program called radKIDS, which gives children choices and helps them develop a plan for themselves so that they have a feeling of empowerment should they ever need to fight back. “Growing up, I
about her story. “It’s been a really good experience- it feels nice to set the record straight finally,” she said. “I love speaking, meeting with people, working with different organizations, so I’ll probably continue doing this. But at some point in the future I want to be a mom, and I want to be the kind of mom that my mom was to me, so there will probably come a point in time where I will stop doing what I’m doing so I can become a mom.” As she travels around, to all kinds of places and scenes, she has come to a revelation. “It took me a while to realize,
but none of us have a perfect life,” Smart said. Her mom’s advice resonates with her always: “The best punishment you can ever give [your captor] is to be happy, is to
follow your dreams and do exactly what you want to do. I think that can apply to each one of us, granted we’re not all kidnapped, but we all have hard times and we all
can choose to allow that to overwhelm our lives or allow it to push us forward and be happy.”
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Photo courtesy of Josh Law
can remember hearing things like ‘don’t talk to strangers,’ but never any words on what to do if you’re in a dangerous situation,” Smart said; radKIDS teaches children what to do, not what not to do. Smart is married now, to Scotsman Matthew Gilmour. They met in Paris while they were
doing mission work with their churches, and now live in Salt Lake City. They love to travel, and Smart enjoys riding her horse and playing her harp while Gilmour continues his education. She very much enjoys her advocacy work, and is currently finishing a book