Youths dance to help fight substance abuse

Gage Wilde was separated from his mom for a year.

"It was hard to not see her while she was in treatment," the 13-year-old boy said.

His mom was in treatment for drugs and alcohol. But Gage doesn't resent his mother for not being there during that time.

Gage, along with 25 other youths ranging in age from 7 to 17, performed for nearly 1,000 people at The Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City Wednesday as part of the National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors' "Sowing the Seeds of Recovery" conference. The children are part of a new local youth performance group known as Kids Against Drugs and Alcohol.

Gage's mother has been clean for four years now, and he is proud of her for making the change.

"Every time I would go in (her room), she would just not be herself, and now she is just awesome," Gage said of his mother. "She has changed a lot."

His mother, Amy Wilde, graduated in 2007 from the Odyssey House, a nonprofit drug rehabilitation center. She has not only been clean for four years, but also now travels around to schools in Utah with her son to spread the message of the dangers of drugs and alcohol.

Amy Wilde became a part of KADA with her son because of what it stands for and because it gives "kids somewhere to go."

She believes things might have been different for her if there had been something like this available to her when she was younger.

Now Wilde's son is around friends and people who are familiar with what he experienced. Going out and teaching children at a young age is the most important part, Wilde said. "That is where (education) needs to start, is with the kids."

As a reminder to everyone that change begins with the individual, the children handed out pocket-size mirrors after their performance of Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror." The mirror cases have the words "change begins with the man in the mirror" written on them.

Wilde said the program has not only helped her but also her son to recover.

"My son wasn't as outgoing as he is now," Wilde said. "You never would have got him up on a stage a few years ago. This has really brought him out of his shell."

Wilde's hope is that the program can grow, parents will join and bring their children and everyone can teach each other.