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The following is the story from REDBOOK magazine from May of 1997 were my wife Kathy was chosen by Rebook as 1 of 5 MADD mothers of the year. This is were the photo of us and Mrs. Dole came from. I felt you would find this interesting until I can write our story and the fact that I'm very proud of her to have been chosen out of all the mother across the USA.The Valone family survived the horrible night of February 9, 1990,but it greatly changed them.
Hit head on by a drunk driver, all the Valones suffered critical injuries. Husband Don received trauma to the brain ,broken leg , smashed knees , and various cut and bruises. Seven years later , he has
attention deficit disorder problems with his memory. Samantha age 9 at the time of crash, suffered internal injuries, fractured vertebrae, and a head injury that has left her with lasting difficulty in reading comprehension.
Kathleen Valones legs were broken , her keens crushed , heart and lungs bruised. Despite these injuries she managed to stagger to one of the ambulances on the scene to be with her youngest daughter, Jamie, 7 as she was rushed to the hospital with a severe brain injury and a tear in the brain lining. At the emergency room mother and daughter were separated, Valone could hear doctors call a CODE BLUE and shouted across the emergency room , " Jamie Mom loves you." Remembering today, she cries softly. " I like to think that help pull her through". Jamie now 15 did survive, but the crash left her with severe learning disabilities and epilepsy. She needs close supervision , provided mostly by her mother. Kathleen Valone herself, at 42 , walks with a cane and will need her knees replaced at some point . Despite their personal challenges, Kathleen and Don Valone have become two of MADD's most valuable players in the state of Michigan. Don Valone , who work's at Kmart's national headquarters in Troy , is state chairman of MADD Michigan. Kathleen Valone is active in MADD chapters in Oakland County , were the Valones used to live, and in Lapeer County were they now live. She often speaks to youth groups and at junior high schools, and has become a role model for other parents whose children have suffered impairment as a result of drunk driving. "There's one reason that drives me to do everything I'm doing, "she says. "In order for me to live with what's happened to us and to get through each day, I have to make something good out of something bad." She has plenty of experience doing that. When the public schools didn't have a program suitable for Jamie's disability, the Valone's along with other parents stared a private school. North Star Academy, specifically for learning -disabled children. This year North Star Academy has 25 students and five teachers. And though it's located 55 miles from the Valone's live, Kathleen makes sure Jamie get there every day. "There was a time when we had more bad days then good," Valone's says. " We have more good days than bad now".
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