By Ayla Blumberg
Hi there, I’m Ayla! I am a Childhood Matters youth ambassador and I volunteer for incredible organizations like the LukeLove Foundation. The LukeLove Foundation was created by a loving mother named Shelia Scott, Shelia and her husband lost one of their sons to an opioid overdose in 2016. Since then, Shelia has made it her mission to prevent any other mothers from feeling the pain of losing their child to an easily preventable death, like opioid overdose. Easily preventable as in, utilizing Naloxone and using drugs safely, if at all.
I met Shelia through a company I was working for over summer some years ago, called
La Ventana Treatment Programs. During every Opioid Overdose awareness day, Shelia and her husband Adam would come and do a talk about what Naloxone was, how to use it, and so much more important information. I became more passionate about creating awareness of the topic as I learned more, and continued working with Shelia and her “Battalion” of volunteers.
To create awareness for the epidemic, Shelia and her Battalion members, such as myself, speak in public places; where we can tell as many people as possible about the dangers of Opioids and illicit drugs like Nitazenes, Superbenzos, Xylazine, Kratom, and SSRI’s. I usually do my talks in classrooms at my school, or Shelia lets us know when there will be an event we can help out with. Anytime we do a talk, we give out Lukelove packs of free Naloxone to hand out to whomever we can. Occasionally, some of the volunteers get together and make the Lukelove packs, that includes 2 doses of Naloxone either 4mg or 8mg, a sticker with a barcode to get the Lukelove website, and instructions of what to do in a situation where you have to administer Naloxone.
Shelia and the Battalion have some amazing stories of times where our Naloxone packs saved lives. This past September for one, an 8-week-old puppy had gotten into his owners narcotics and overdosed, he was saved with Naloxone. Another time, this past July, a student I trained at my school during a presentation, called to thank me for the Naloxone I’d given her, for she had just saved someone’s life on her way home from her summer job. These remarkable stories are the reasons I will never give up on teaching anyone and everyone I can.
For more information, please visit https://www.lukelove.org/lukelove-foundation
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