On Saturday, we tabled at Rumble on the Rez put on by the #SoberWarriors and Chad Lion Leoncello at the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation. It was an inspiring event, bringing boxers from all over, musicians, artists and advocates together to stand in solidarity for recovery. We trained people and distributed over 75 naloxone kits in a matter of hours.
An interaction I’ll never forget is training a 13 year old girl who’s mother struggles with opioid addiction on how to use our naloxone kits. Her friend’s mother came over before bringing her by the table to tell me the situation and how she often finds her mother incapacitated from the opioids and is scared she’s going to lose her. The little girl listened intently, hanging on to every word of our training, and you could tell at 13 years old she understood first hand the gravity of this crisis far better than many adults we’ve interacted with over these two years. The number of young children affected by this epidemic is astounding, and I’ll never know what it would be like to be a child and fear them not waking up one morning, or when you come home from school.
I truly hope we can end this. No family, let alone 13 year old should be bearing the weight of this disease alone. More resources, access to treatment programs, transitional housing and support, harm reduction, community programs like Chad’s and finally awareness and compassion are needed in all corners, especially the pockets often forgotten.
Thank you for all who support organizations like ours, organizations like Chad’s, and any organization working to combat this and bring hope.
