Kaitlyn Nicole Vallery

February 7, 1990 – August 27, 2006

 

Kaitlyn was only 16 years old when she died. She was “dusting” keyboard cleaner in the bathtub when she passed out and drowned.

Kaitlyn didn’t intend to die. She’d just left a voice mail for a friend telling her that she was done doing that stuff and she planned to concentrate on staying clean. She intended to get high one more time, take a bath and go on her merry way. It didn’t work out that way. Her friends knew she was dusting but they didn’t tell her parents or any other adult. They didn’t want Kaitlyn mad at them.

Guess what? Kaitlyn’s not mad…she’s dead.

To honor her memory, we established Kaitlyn’s Promise to help more adults and teens understand the dangers of inhalant abuse and the consequences of making bad choices. As of 2014, we are now the Kaitlyn Vallery Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Our mission is to bring awareness of the dangers of drug use and the long reaching effects of your choices. W e provide the following resources to young people and their families:

• Kaitlyn’s family helps educate others by sharing her story with young people through presentations at schools in Houston and the surrounding area.

• We provide free drug screenings to parents who suspect their children may be using illegal drugs but are unable to afford the cost.

• We also offer three $1000 scholarships to local high school students who successfully rose above poor choices – theirs or others – and changed their lives for the better. Previous recipients overcame their own or their parents’ drug use, survived serious illnesses, and are on their own as a result of their parents’ actions.

If her promise can get just one kid to STOP doing this then Kaitlyn’s death will not have been in vain.

“Tell an adult…Save a friend”