SCPD, Purple Rock Project Share Narcan Awareness On Fire Island

FIRE ISLAND, NY — Community members came together to help prevent more overdose-related deaths on Fire Island for the second time this summer to share awareness before the weekend-long "Pines Party 2025."

Suffolk County police and the Purple Rock Project, an organization dedicated to helping people who've lost loved ones to opioids heal, joined forces at The Pines ferry dock to train guests in using Naloxone, aka Narcan, the medication that reverses opioid overdoses.

Participants were also given the opportunity to remember someone lost to overdose or fentanyl poisoning by writing their name on a purple rock.

SCPD Emergency Medical Service Officers Jason Byron and Alex Trzepizur led the Narcan training and distributed 312 doses of Narcan. The team also educated people about the 911 Good Samaritan Law, which protects individuals who call for medical help during a suspected overdose from prosecution for certain illicit activities. They emphasized how accidental opioid exposures can affect people of all ages and that having Narcan in the home doesn't indicate substance abuse, but instead, preparedness and care for loved ones.

"The Pines community was welcoming and willing to take a few minutes to learn about opioids, fentanyl and the overdose epidemic," Byron said. "Now many people, homes and businesses in The Pines are now stocked with Narcan."

Byron's team was assisted by SCPD’s Behavioral Health Section officers Nicholas Robbins, Gina Lauricella and Bridget Topping. Officer Jesse Levy and Kyle Pilotalso assisted the Police Academy’s Emergency Medical Training Unit in delivering this critical education and training. The team worked with Pines Care Center Manager Elinor Gum and Fire Island Property Pines Owners Association and SCPD Marine Bureau, which transported the team to The Pines.

The Purple Rock Project's founder, Carole Trottere, lost her son Alex to fentanyl in 2018.

Trottere's organization often coordinates with SCPD's Narcan training and supplies purple-painted rocks that people can inscribe with the names of loved ones they've lost to overdoses. The rocks are then exhibited at the Suffolk County Environmental Center at the Scully Estate, Tree Memorial and Serenity Garden, 550 South Bay Avenue, Islip and other locations as a reminder of how many Long Islanders have died from O.D. and fentanyl poisonings.

"Writing a child’s name on a rock may seem like a small thing, but I think it is a way of saying to the world that their child was once here," Trottere told Patch during a prior interview.

PRP also distributes information about Long Island Council on Alcoholism & Drug Dependence, Gabriel’s Giving Tree and F.I.S.T. to community members.

SCPD and Purple Rock Project will be at the following events throughout the summer:

• Tuesday, July 29, 5 to 9 p.m.

Patchogue Alive After 5

• Thursday, July 31, 5 to 10 p.m.

Alive by the Bay in Bay Shore

• Tuesday, Aug. 12, 5 to 9 p.m.

Patchogue Alive After 5

• Thursday, Aug. 14, 5 to 10 p.m.

Babylon Summer Block Party

• Thursday, Aug. 21, 5 to 9 p.m.