“Kelsey became vegan because she knew first-hand what it was like to be stripped of everything, held captive, and tortured.
The Troubled Teen Industry and a factory farm aren’t too terribly different, after all.
Kelsey gave up a lifelong love for riding horses, because, in her own words, “horses aren’t really for us.” She could have been an Olympic equestrian had her youth not been stolen from her. It was this theft of her youth that lad her to dedicate her adult life to being a voice for voiceless young people trapped in the same system that took so much from her.
Kelsey and I met in 2008, at Second Nature Wilderness Program, in Duchesne, Utah. Of the three Troubled Teen Industry programs she attended, Second Nature remains the only one still in operation. This is largely thanks to Kelsey, whose bravery closed the doors of John Dewey Academy after 37 years of fracturing families and ruining lives.
We were two scared, hurting, traumatized kids — dirty and hungry in the woods. We would spend the subsequent two years even more scared, more hurt, more traumatized at the hands of Second Nature, Vista, and John Dewey Academy. While the statue of limitations was not on her side, Kelsey provided crucial witness testimony in the lawsuit that shut down Vista. She was an unstoppable force that way.
She decided to speak out one day and her voice moved mountains.
For her, I too will move mountains and devote myself to getting Second Nature shut down, as well. May her eternal rest be just a little bit more peaceful.
Sometimes people come into your life and you don’t realize how important they’ll be until years, decades down the road.
Sometimes, at a critical moment, your knight-in-shining-armor show up on her horse and saves you.
She slays the dragon and burns down the castle and makes the pain stop.
Kelsey was my knight-in-shining-armor.
She slayed the dragon. She burned down the castle. She saved me.
I just wish I could have saved her.”
Written by, Survivor and Activist, Rachael Chamberlin-Bee
Thank you, Kelsey
On behalf of the Payne Familia and We Warned Them: Thank you Kelsey for attending the first protest and vigil we organized in 2021. The greatest form of solidarity is showing up and your presence will never be forgotten every year as we continue to gather in front of UHS Headquarters.
Margaret is an artist and activist originally from Rochester, NY. She is passionate about educating her own community on social injustices that often occur silently, which led to her investigation of Freedom Village, a Troubled Teen Industry Program that had been running in upstate NY for over 40 years. This spiraled into her creating 6-part audio documentary about the facilities and it's connection to TTI. She know serves as a campaign coordinator for WWT and lives on the road with her partner, Maggie.
