A sign advertises free naloxone outside Bream Memorial Presbyterian Church on the West Side of Charleston, W.Va. It was one of 16 sites across Kanawha County where volunteers distributed the opioid overdose antidote during Save a Life Day on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (Lori Kersey | West Virginia Watch)
During Save a Life Day Thursday, Abby Fife and Derek Hudson made their way to a handful of their neighbors on Charleston’s West Side, distributing naloxone and bright yellow boxes for the businesses to put them in.
Hudson is the executive director of the Bream’s Neighborhood S.H.O.P., a drop-in center that operates at Bream Memorial Presbyterian Church in Charleston, W.Va. He and his team, including Fife, an employee of the nonprofit, distributed the “wall boxes,” which are converted pencil boxes with adhesives that can be used to attach them to walls, to 15 businesses on the West Side.
“It’s an extension of what the S.H.O.P.’s already doing,” Hudson said of participating in the annual naloxone distribution event. “We fully believe that putting Narcan in the hands of all the people who walk through our doors helps save lives daily. The more we can get out there, the more awareness we can put out there, the more likely there’s a chance tonight that somebody’s going to be alive because of this.”
Thursday was the fifth year for Save a Life Day, which started in response to rising overdose numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The event started with Kanawha and Putnam counties. This year, volunteers in more than 30 states — including every state east of the Mississippi River and some farther west — participated in the event. Coordinator Caroline Wilson said she hoped to send out 100,000 doses of naloxone
A table outside Bream Memorial Presbyterian Church is stacked with Narcan during Save a Life Day on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (Lori Kersey | West Virginia Watch)
Organizers of the naloxone distribution event aim to save lives by increasing access to the overdose antidote drug. Access to naloxone was cited as one of the reasons for a recent decrease in overdose deaths. West Virginia has historically had some of the highest drug overdose death rates in the nation. The event also aims to lessen the stigma associated with the drug.
On Charleston’s West Side, some businesses already keep the naloxone on hand. Thursday’s distribution was a chance to get more, or exchange their expired doses.
Ellen Bullock, at the Bullock Distillery, said the business keeps some naloxone in the back of the building. They plan to use the kit that Hudson and Fife brought Thursday in the front section of the building. She also requested a “We Carry Naloxone” sticker for the business’s glass entrance.
“There’s a parking lot back there, where people will tend to do drugs back there,” she said. “So that’s why we have it there. But having it up here is not a bad thing either. And then just letting people know that it’s in here.”
Hillary Harrison, owner of the West Side T-shirt shop Kin Ship Goods, said the business has kept naloxone on hand since 2018. They’ll add the box and keep it near the front of the store, she said.
Derek Hudson, executive director of the Bream’s Neighborhood S.H.O.P., talks with Ellen Bullock of the Bullock Distillery, during Save a Life Day Thursday. Hudson and workers from the nonprofit went to businesses on Charleston’s West Side to distribute naloxone and bright yellow boxes for them to keep it in. (Lori Kersey | West Virginia Watch)
“We just really believe in helping our neighbors when we can and not judging them,” she said. “I have family members that have been brought back to life with this stuff. So I just really believe in it and want to support the people distributing it.”
Grant funding allowed organizers to send more than 400 wall boxes to sites within Kanawha County.
In addition to people talking to business owners, the Neighborhood S.H.O.P. distributed naloxone from a table beside Washington Street West. By just after 1 p.m., the group had distributed 145 kits, assistant director Shayna Ellis said.
For Ellis access to naloxone is close to home. Her father died of complications from his addiction, she said. Her brother recently completed a treatment program for addiction.
Abby Fife, an employee of the Bream’s Neighborhood S.H.O.P., hands naloxone and a “wall box” to workers at Mea Cuppa Coffee on the West Side in Charleston, W.Va. (Lori Kersey | West Virginia Watch)
The West Side neighborhood and the program needs the opioid antidote drug, she said.
“In the month of August, we had two overdoses on the property,” she said. She added that in both cases, the people survived.
Altogether, the team from the Bream’s Neighborhood S.H.O.P. hoped to distribute around 500 kits of naloxone, Hudson said.
Across Kanawha County, organizers hoped to distribute between 2,000 and 2,500 kits, with up to 5,000 doses.
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