Elizabeth Smart hopes to aid victims

It's been a little over five years since Elizabeth Smart was found safe after being abducted for nine months.

In her grandmother's living room Monday evening, she gave a harp recital. The music major just finished her sophomore year at Brigham Young University and talked about being happy that finals were over as she tuned her harp.

For Smart, her life today is about schooling, her job as a bank clerk, practicing the harp and finding free time to do whatever else she can squeeze into her schedule. One of the biggest conflicts in her life now is finding time to conduct nine more recitals as required by her major.

In other words, Smart is like almost every college-aged woman in Utah. She is a survivor and shows no sign of being scarred from her long abduction.

Now, Smart hopes she can help other kidnap victims and let them know that even though they may have experienced something horrible, it doesn't mean they can't resume a normal life once they return.

The U.S. Department of Justice will unveil a new pamphlet Wednesday during a ceremony in Washington, D.C., aimed at helping victims of abduction. The pamphlet is being called a survivor's guide for kidnap victims, and was written with help from a group of five kidnap victims, including Smart. Elizabeth and her father, Ed, will be in Washington for the ceremony.

Monday, Smart gave a rare press conference to local reporters to talk about the new pamphlet and to update reporters on how she has been doing since her June 2002 kidnapping.

"I think I'm doing great," she said.

Smart said the only time she makes public appearances or lends her name to something is when she believes it will help others. When the DOJ called her and explained the survivor's pamphlet, Smart said she thought about it for a couple of days.

"I only do things when I feel they're important. I think (the pamphlet) is important," she said.

None of the other survivors who contributed to the pamphlet, three other girls and a boy ranging from ages 8 to late teens, were in as a high-profile incidents as Smart. The group met twice over the past several months, in Chicago and San Diego, and then e-mailed ideas back and forth.

Each victim's story was different and each dealt with the the trauma they suffered in their own ways, Smart said. For Smart, it was a strong support network of family and friends that pulled her through.