JEFFERSON TWP — There will be an empty chair in Kathy Nee’s yard this week. It will be decorated in purple with pictures of her late daughter and posters with statistics on how many drug deaths there have been in Butler County.

The chair is part of the international Empty Chair campaign to bring attention to victims of drug-induced homicide — victims that include Nee’s daughter, who died Jan. 28, 2019, of fentanyl poisoning.

The Empty Chair runs for a week and is just one of the ways Nee is trying to make the death of her only child have meaning.

There’s her participation each March 6 in Black Balloon Day in Diamond Park — an event to allow families, friends and loved ones to celebrate the lives and memories of those lost to drug overdose.

And there’s Chante’s Heart, Nee’s charity she created to honor her daughter.

“I named the charity that because that’s just who she was. She was very compassionate, always helping others, putting her needs aside to help others,” she said,

Nee said her daughter was a drug and alcohol counselor who struggled on and off for years with a drug addiction. It started with two back surgeries she had when she was injured in an attack in her college dorm room.

Despite her struggles with addiction, Chante eventually graduated with a psychology degree and worked in various local treatment centers.

“She was working two part-time jobs when she passed,” said Nee. “They were not in her field, but she worked them so she could attend all the meetings. She knew that recovery was her priority, so she worked two jobs so she could make the meetings.”

“It was in her 10th month of recovery. She was doing all the things she was supposed to be doing, doing a 12-step program,” said Nee. “But she relapsed, and that is how we lost her.”

She is adamant that Chante’s death was not a drug overdose but a drug-induced homicide. The man who supplied her with the drugs accepted a plea deal and was sent to prison.

But that brought little relief to the grieving mother.

“She was an only child. Her dad left when she was 2. When she passed, I was devastated. I wanted to go where she was,” she said.

Nee went to a counselor, then a grief counselor. She took week-long courses on grief and attended a monthly support group trying to navigate a world without her daughter.

One counselor told her that finding meaning was crucial to her healing.

Remembering that Chante loved to go to yard sales, Nee said she saw a yard sale at a storage unit and stopped.

She bought a huge box of odds and ends for $5. Wen she got home, she struggled to get it out of her car and then to empty and catalog the box’s contents.

“Under a crock pot I found a little silver heart that read. ‘Mom, my best friend, my inspiration,’” she said.

And that find inspired her to start Chante’s Heart, a charity that holds an annual summer yard sale at Nee’s home and uses the money to benefit the Center For Community Resources and the Light of Life Community Outreach in Butler.

The Center for Community Resources receives “blessing bags” filled with small items such as socks and notebooks, as well as personal hygiene items.

The front of the bag has a logo that is Chante’s actual handwriting.

Katie Doerr, director of programs at CCR, said the blessing bags are greatly appreciated.

“It’s an absolute need, a necessity. Our clients are homeless, with no items or a small amount of items. This helps with supporting them with their basic needs,” said Doerr.

Doerr said the bags contain information about Chante, and Nee puts a lot of thought into what she places into them, like a sweet-pea scent that her daughter liked.

“They have a lot of meaning. It’s not just, ‘Here’s a bag,’” said Doerr.

Nee said the first yard sale was in 2019, set up with the help of a core group of friends that have been very supportive.

“We start about a month ahead of time. A few others help, and we tag everything for sale,” she said. She looks for anything that is clean and usable to sell.

Anything that isn’t sold after multiple yard sales is bagged up and taken to other charities such as the St. Vincent de Paul Society and the Salvation Army. Clothes are taken to a church in Freeport and men’s recovery groups.

“We started purging things that haven’t sold, because there is only so much room to store things. I do like to put my car in the garage,” said Nee.

Nee said her next projects are to secure 501(c)3 organization status for Chante’s Heart to make it easier for businesses to donate and to figure out how to sell charity items online.

“I’m not very computer savvy. I wish I could figure out a better way to sell online,” she said.

Nee said monetary donations can be made to Kathy Nee, P.O. Box 281, Saxonburg, PA 16056. For other donations, call her at 724-859-0891.