For Katey Taylor, out of tragedy came something truly powerful. After her daughter, Abbey, passed away in 2008 as a result of injuries from an improperly maintained pool drain cover, Taylor decided to make good on Abbey’s wish that this accident would never happen to another child.
Abbey’s Hope Charitable Foundation, which advocates for safety standards for all pools and promotes awareness of child safety issues, was born just eight months later. “It’s amazing how things happen in your life and that’s just the way you go,” says Taylor. Since then, the foundation has worked tirelessly to create “safer pools for safer kids.”
This past March, the foundation’s efforts were recognized when the National Drowning Prevention Alliance chose Abbey’s Hope as the recipient of the 2012 Community Lifesaver Award. “It reaffirmed that we’re doing the right thing and that there is a need for us as a foundation,” says Taylor. Taylor was on hand at the National Drowning Prevention Symposium in San Diego to accept the award, an experience she says “made me smile because it made me think that Abbey was smiling.”
Abbey’s Hope is now offering a pilot program for water safety classes in apartment buildings, and the annual Abbey’s Hope Golf Tournament is scheduled at Braemer Golf Course for September.
