COUNTYWIDE

This event will be held at the Health and Justice Building in Provo, 151 S. University Ave., Room 1600 (first floor). For questions or details, please call 851-7127.

• The monthly meeting of the Heart & Soul Survivors, a suicide survivors support group, will be held from 7-9 p.m. on Thursday. The group meets at the IHC NW Plaza, 1134 N. 500 West in Provo, upstairs in Room 5 (parking is off 1230 North). The support group meets the second Thursday of every month.

Anyone who has been affected by the loss from suicide is welcome -- immediate and extended family, friends, neighbors, etc. No fees or forms, just love and understanding. For information call 223-9954, or 851-7058.

PROVO

• Mayor Lewis K. Billings will sign a proclamation dedicating May as Foster Care Month for the city at noon on Wednesday in front of the Provo City Library at Academy Square, 550 N. University Ave. He and the Utah Foster Care Foundation will also recognize Faith and Tom Gandolph for 35 years of foster parenting.

The Gandolphs began foster parenting in the 1970s in Long Island, New York. They had nine children of their own when a local clergyman asked if a teenage girl they knew could stay with them. She stayed six years, graduated from high school, and eventually became a New York City police officer.

Word of their abilities spread, and over the next 10 years, they cared for eight more children, all through private arrangement, without any financial or professional support. In 1985 the Gandolph family moved to Illinois, where they became licensed foster parents and adopted two daughters and a sibling group in their care.

In 1999, Tom's job was transferred and they moved to Utah. Since then, they have cared for 12 more children. including two sibling groups. They are in their late 60s but have postponed retirement and kept their license current to help more children.

There are about 475 children in foster care in Utah County and 2,600 in the state. In Utah, the average amount of time a child is in foster care is 15 months. More than half of the children who enter foster care return to their parents or relatives. Last year, 392 children in foster care were adopted by their foster parents in Utah.

For more information about foster parenting, visit www.utahfostercare.org.

• This year's Provo School District Foundation Evening of Excellence award recipients were Rosemarie Smith, Amelia Earhart Elementary; Kelly Shurtz, Provo High School; Bari Olson, Canyon Crest Elementary; Kathy Hansen, Amelia Earhart Elementary; Jayne Smith, Wasatch Elementary; and Susan Gong, Provo High School. The recipients were nominated by their peers and selected by a committee from the community. Each recipient received $500 and a plaque.

SPANISH FORK

• Organizers of the Spanish Fork Youth Arts Festival are hoping to stimulate the minds of children ages 3 to 18 during their upcoming event.

The Youth Arts Festival will start June 16 and run for two weeks. A wide variety of classes will be offered during the festival about music, art, dance, theater, literature and photography. Registration begins Monday at the Parks and Recreation Office at Spanish Fork High School. Classes will be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis.

For more information and for a detailed class schedule, contact the Parks and Recreation Office at 798-5068.