Foster-care success recognized

The 2,000 purple-and-white flags on the west grounds of the Salt Lake City-County Building may have been an eye-grabber, but the real stars at a Wednesday event were once-troubled kids leading productive lives.

Dan Burleigh, for example, lived in the mountains above Payson with his brother and father, camping out in tents and tending to goats.

He didn't have a home, didn't have a school to attend and didn't have much hope for his future. After he turned himself in to state child welfare officials, his future changed.

Burleigh was one of many former foster children who attended a Wednesday event held in conjunction with May being National Foster Care Month. The flags represented the 2,000 children across Utah who are in foster care.

"How many of us could reach down and lift someone up?" said Utah's first lady Mary Kaye Huntsman, who along with Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson spoke at the event. "How many children out there would have hope if only someone would put their arms around them and lift them up so they could believe in themselves?"

Huntsman and others spoke of the enriching nature of fostering children who need a helping hand — how by giving a little, people often get a lot. "I'm not here today as the first lady but as the mother of an adopted child," she said.

Five years ago, the Huntsmans adopted a little girl from China who was abandoned on the steps of a vegetable market and later placed in an orphanage.

While Mary Kaye Huntsman said people have told them, 'Gracie Mei is so lucky,' the first lady disagrees.

"We are the lucky ones . . . we are so grateful to have her in our lives."

The event was held to not only shine the light on how adults can get involved in mentoring youth, but to celebrate the accomplishments of children who entered the "system" and emerged a success.

Burleigh went on to graduate from high school, college and is pursuing a master's degree. He's married with two children. "I was dirt poor, long-haired and angry," he said, saying the image of "white trash" isn't far from the life he once lived. "All the statistics show I should be in jail, that I should be a high-school dropout."

Instead, Burleigh said he found himself surrounded by people who had a "vision of not what I was at the time, but of what I could be."