"Devastating Beyond Words" |
|
Matthew Schoonover was like many typical kids. He grew up in a loving and supportive family, enjoyed many friendships, and loved to play baseball.
Matt was involved with his youth group, played baseball and soccer for and graduated from Worthington Christian High School, attended Kamp Kanakuk in Missouri every summer, worked at the Golf Dome, enjoyed going to the Cleveland Browns games with his family, and loved playing golf with his father.
Matt was outgoing, embraced life, and gave legendary bear hugs.
But, sadly, he wasn’t immune from the disease that took his life when he was 21.
Matt could have been my son or yours. The sad fact is there are many families who know too well what Paul and Ellen Schoonover, Matt’s parents, have gone through. Although Matt's family and friends loved him, he started to misuse drugs when he was in high school. Gradually, Matt shifted from partying with drugs to becoming dependent upon them.
At 21, Matt left rehab and one day later fatally overdosed. Matt was a victim of the opiate crisis. His parents, Paul and Ellen Schoonover were devastated.
"When we buried our youngest child that May morning, our lives were changed forever," Ellen wrote in an open letter. "It is devastating beyond words to lose a child. Adding to the sheer loss—the shame, confusion, and anger of losing our son to a heroin overdose was overwhelming."
Paul and Ellen didn't know where to turn, but they eventually came to work with us and our network of families who have lost loved ones to overdoses, The G.A.P. Network. They provided support to other families who lost their loved ones, other parents who lost their children.
"As Paul and I became more involved with The G.A.P. Network, we saw a different type of healing begin as we moved from receiving resources and support to giving them, and we were able to reach out to others to help them in those early stages of loss."
|
|
The Center honors the memory of Matthew Baldwin Schoonover and all the lives lost to the disease of addiction. Matt died of a drug overdose at 21, but his legacy—and his name—will be remembered as a force for the prevention of drug misuse and addiction.
The Matthew B. Schoonover Educational Center
- Brings vital awareness to the lives lost, altered, and affected by the disease of addiction.
- Provides a center for trainings, education, and collaboration to inspire prevention solutions.
- Provides a comfortable setting with state-of-the-art technology to foster learning.
Since its dedication, the Center has hosted dozens of educational sessions to improve and develop Ohio’s prevention workforce, teaching them how to implement school-based prevention programs, assess their community’s readiness and specific needs, form an effective coalition, engage youth in prevention, become certified prevention professionals, and more.
We’ve rented the Center to other prevention providers for their events so that all may benefit from the Schoonovers' legacy. Additionally, we’ve used the Center as a rallying point for everyone to do their part for prevention, for youth from across Ohio to plan comprehensive change on a statewide scale, and for the dozens of community coalitions, youth-led prevention providers, colleges and universities, and grieving families that comprise Ohio’s prevention networks.
We do this because we know overdose deaths are preventable, because effective prevention will save lives and families, and because addiction tragically robs families of their loved ones.
In short, we do this for all the Matthews of the world.
|
|
The Schoonovers' story is a tragic one. Their loss was unimaginable, and their grief immeasurable. It's also a story of turning grief into advocacy for prevention, which is what The G.A.P. Network stands for.
"Healing is a journey," Ellen wrote. "While we will never move PAST our grief and loss of Matt, we are moving THROUGH it. We are grateful for the resources and the people we have met through The G.A.P. Network who have come alongside us. It has been a valuable support to Paul and me in a journey that we never imagined we would be on."
Paul and Ellen's courage and compassion are remarkable. They spent years turning their worst day into a legacy for prevention. For that, we commend them, and we're proud to be a part of their prevention story.
We invite you to take part in that story, too. The work of the Matthew B. Schoonover Educational Center never stopped. It continues to provide dozens of workshops and hundreds of hours of education to hundreds of prevention partners every year. The attendees of these workshops are then trained in providing culturally competent prevention services, mental health first aid, how to assess a community's readiness for various prevention services, and much more.
|
|
Share this email with your friends! |
|
Questions? Comments? Suggestions?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
