Washington DC--May 22, 2013- Today, Katey Taylor stood alongside Chairman Inez Tenebaum of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz at the press conference that kicked off the fourth year of the CPSC national pool and spa safety campaign, Simple Steps Save Lives. The American Red Cross also participated in the press conference to spread pool and spa awareness.
Edina, Minnesota - May 1, 2013- Public pools begin opening Memorial Day weekend. Families start heading to the lake. And that fills some people-like Katey Taylor- with apprehension. In 2007, Katey and Scott Taylor's six-year-old daughter, Abbey, was disemboweled by a faulty pool drain and despite a live, intestine and pancreas transplant, died nine months later. The Taylors co-founded Abbey's Hope Charitable Foundation in their daughter's name, dedicating the organization to preventing drowning and entrapments and to keeping kids safe in the water. Yet, last summer, a record number of drownings occurred in Minnesota--in total, 39 non-boating related deaths. Nationwide, drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related death among children ages 14 and under. Significantly, approximately 800 children die from drowning each year. Drownings happen in open bodies of water, pools and spas.
Edina, MN - April 4, 2013- Katey and Scott Taylor, parents of Abbey Taylor, the Minnesota girl who died in 2008 as a result of a faulty pool drain, are once again in the news. The organization the Taylor's created in their daughter's name, Abbey's Hope Charitable Foundation, has been named winner of the National Water Safety Congress's prestigious Regional Leadership Merit Award. The Edina couple was honored at the Annual International Boating & Water Safety Summit in San Antonio, Texas on March 27th.
Below the surface of a quiet pond lived a colony of water bugs. They were happy, living far from the sun. But they noticed that occasionally, a member of their colony would climb up a lily stalk and disappear from sight, never to return. Where do you suppose she went? wondered a water bug.