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Shelley Osterloh ReportingAll teens face difficult challenges growing up. Utah's first lady, Mary Kaye Huntsman, wants kids to know they are not alone.
Mrs. Huntsman has developed a program called the Power in You that is inspiring Utah kids to overcome their problems.
You may not be able to see it in their faces, but every child faces tough challenges -- it may be poverty, abuse, disease, disabilities or just being liked. And they struggle with dangerous behavior like eating disorders, substance abuse, and violence.
The Power in You takes real people who have struggled in life to schools to share their stories of challenge and triumph.
Becca Levie, Power in You Ambassador: "Sent me home after my last surgery at the age of two, she would beat me on the head with a wood spoon until I quit crying, and that's how she coped."
Becca Levie was born to a drug addicted mother who walked away and abandoned her at age eight. She was homeless and abused, but still managed to become a successful wife, mother and entrepreneur.
Becca Levie, Power in You Ambassador: "I think of all the abuse it was the verbal tapes that continued after we were found and ending up in foster home. So there was just something. I believe there is a voice inside of every one of us that whispers, even though everything is screaming so loud, that we matter and we can do something."
Twenty-one year old Allie Schneider was born with spina bifida, but never let her disability get in the way of the things she wanted to do, like swimming, water skiing, driving bobsled and college.
Allie Schneider, The Power in You Ambassador: "Just because you have a challenge such as a disability, it doesn't mean you can't do things. You can do anything that you set your mind to. I have a friend named Dan Clark who has this saying that I love, it's, ‘Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.'"
Mrs. Huntsman started the peer to peer program to help children with diabetes, then expanded it to cancer. Now the Power in You program helps kids face all kinds of life's challenges and avoid risky behavior.
Mary Kaye Huntsman, Utah's First Lady: "I hope they learn to be a little more kind to others, to lift others and not be so judgmental. And the other is to know that whatever challenge they face in life, they are not alone. "
Hayden Loftus, Centerville Jr. High Student: "It's so amazing that they can have so much trouble in their life and yet they just keep going."
Mary Hiller, Centerville Jr. High Student: "I really like how they are all so positive and encouraging us to be the best we can, and how they all have trials and it reminds us that even though hard things, good things will come."
These kids are learning their lives don't need to be limited by the challenges they face.
In addition to the "Power in You" assemblies, there is also a web site where teens can read some of the personal stories of challenge and how people overcame them.
