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From despair, a cause is born

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By LISA A. DAVIS

ldavis@tampatrib.com

Published: July 3, 2009

TRINITY - Katelyn would be 6 now, probably on the verge of starting first grade and full of ideas on how the world works.

But the clock stopped for Katelyn a month after her second birthday. She didn't get to learn that sometimes the world is cruel.

Now a foundation bears her name. The Katelyn Foundation is dedicated to educating the public about water safety. Katelyn's mom and uncle, Rob Testo, started it in 2006. It keeps her alive, her mother says. And it keeps her mother going.

The nonprofit foundation pays for swimming lessons for children to prevent accidents like the one that claimed Katelyn.

It was Jan. 27, 2004. Katelyn and her mom, Sandra Testo-Michaud, had just returned to their Hunting Creek home in New Port Richey after dropping off Katelyn's big sister at school and doing errands. As part of the daily routine, Testo-Michaud got her daughter cookies and milk and sat her down in front of the TV to watch "Dora the Explorer."

Testo-Michaud went to her home office to check voice-mail messages. It was only a few minutes, she recalls. Maybe five.

When Testo-Michaud returned to the living room, Katelyn was gone. A few nibbles had been taken out of the cookie. The milk had been sipped. She searched for a moment before noticing the sliding-glass door open slightly. She went outside and saw her toddler in the bottom of the family pool, in the deep end. Testo-Michaud dove in. It was her first swim in the pool, still being installed. Workers had taken down the safety gate that morning to fix a deck problem but didn't put it back before leaving.

Testo-Michaud pulled her daughter out of the water. Katelyn wasn't breathing, so she started cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

"She started gurgling a little bit," Testo-Michaud said. "I thought she would come back. I really did."

But her baby was gone.

"So surreal," she said recently.

Later that day, Testo-Michaud had to tell her 5-year-old daughter, Lexi, that her sister had gone to heaven.

"Does that mean you only have one little girl now?" Lexi asked.

The whole ordeal tore Testo-Michaud's family apart. Not only did she lose her youngest daughter, she lost her husband, who left about a year later, she said.

The now-single mom keeps a schedule that would make most people's head spin. She owns TLC Transportation, works full-time as a home health care coordinator, is in Rotary, does volunteer work for charities and the occasional modeling gig for the Home Shopping Network.

Staying busy gives her a sense of peace.

"I think, after my daughter passed away, keeping busy keeps my mind off things," she said.

Staying busy has included a move to a new house in Trinity, about a mile from where Katelyn is buried.

It's about prevention

This year, she said, it seems like a lot of children have drowned in the Bay area. It has pushed her to become even more active in her 3-year-old foundation.

In Pasco County, there have been seven drownings or near-drownings this year. Pasco Fire Rescue's statistics aren't broken down by age or whether a case was fatal, Assistant Fire Chief Mike Ciccarello said.

In 2008, there were 18 drownings or near-drownings in Pasco.

Most of the calls in Pasco are for children, Ciccarello said.

"The common factor is almost always the guardian was not paying attention," he said.

When Testo-Michaud does speaking engagements on water safety, she takes a poster of Katelyn, smiling and clad in a pink gingham outfit and jean hat. Under her cheerful image is a sobering statement: "Drowning is the number one cause of accidental death in children under the age of 5!"

She raises money and teams up with pools such as the New Port Richey Recreation and Aquatic Center and the James P. Gills YMCA in Trinity. She is talking to the county recreation center in Hudson.

"I say to people, 'What I'm doing makes me feel like she didn't just exist in this life,'" Testo-Michaud said. "She died for a reason, and I'm saving lives on behalf of her."

In New Port Richey, beginner swimming classes for The Katelyn Foundation filled up quickly. About 83 children are enrolled in those free classes at the aquatic center, said Parks and Recreation Director Elaine Smith.

"I just think it's absolutely incredible that she's taken an absolutely terrible tragedy - that I can't imagine a mother going through - and taking it to educate so others don't go through this terrible experience," Smith said.

Fourteen-year-old Gerardo Otero of New Port Richey is proud that his younger brother, Angel, 6, learned how to swim at the city aquatic center through the foundation.

"When he finished the swimming lessons, he could swim across the pool and go down the slide for the first time," Gerardo said. "When we went to the beach, he was like, no problem."

'Pools are everywhere'

Ghelder Arriaga of Holiday, who is a children's librarian in New Port Richey, signed up his 3-year-old daughter, Arwen, for the lessons after spotting the banner for The Katelyn Foundation at the aquatic center and learning the story behind it.

"I realized that my daughter loves to swim and loves the water, and it really hit home that it was time to have my daughter take lessons," he said. "She's loving it."

He had thought his daughter was too young for swimming lessons, but now he knows the sooner the better.

"It just didn't dawn on me that pools are everywhere and water, really," he said.

That's the message 38-year-old Testo-Michaud wants to get out. Eventually, she wants to expand the foundation beyond water-safety issues. It's her dream to take the foundation nationwide and to have a center where people can come and learn and children can take swimming lessons. She wants to build an army of volunteers. It's something she just has to do, she said.

"When Katelyn died, a part of me went with her," she said.

The foundation?

"It's all from her. I believe that she's right by my side."

THE FOUNDATION

To find out more about The Katelyn Foundation or to volunteer, go to www.katelynfoundation.org.

Swimming Lessons

For information about The Katelyn Foundation swimming lessons, contact:

•New Port Richey Parks and Recreation, (727) 841-4560. (This summer's classes are filled.)

•James P. Gills Family Branch in Trinity, (727) 375-9622. (Classes at this location begin Monday.)

•Pasco County Parks and Recreation Veterans Memorial Park, (727) 861-3033. (Details on classes at this location are still being worked out.)

Free swimming lessons are open to children ages 6 months to 12 years.

Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083.

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