SCPD And Purple Rock Project Spread Narcan Awareness On LI

LINDENHURST, NY — The opioid epidemic is running rampant in Suffolk County and community members are finding ways to help prevent more overdose-related deaths.

On Sunday, the Suffolk County Police Department and the Purple Rock Project—an organization dedicated to helping people who've lost loved ones to opioids heal—joined forces to train Long Islanders to use Naloxone, aka Narcan, the medication that reverses opioid overdoses, at The Beat Lives On 5K run in honor of CJ Neumann.

More than 50 people were trained by SCPD Emergency Medical Service Officers Jason Byron and Alex Trzepizur and received a kit containing two doses to take with them.

"The number of people who were willing to take five minutes out of their day to learn about opioids, fentanyl and the overdose epidemic was impressive," Byron said.

Alongside the Narcan training booth was a memorial rock and information station run by the Purple Rock Project founder, Carole Trottere, who lost her son Alex to fentanyl in 2018.

Trottere's organization 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 said.

Over one million people have died since 1999 from drug overdoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2023, there were an estimated 366 fatal fentanyl overdoses in Suffolk, down 8.2% from 399 confirmed deaths in 2022.

For more information about the memorial rocks and The Purple Rock Project, contact Trottere at catrottere@gmail.com.