$1,150 in just a few days, which allowed Craig to enroll in treatment on January 3, 2017, and the family continues to raise money.
“It was really amazing to see Craig’s gratitude,” Kayden said. “I think that for anybody who struggles with addiction, and I know for my brother oftentimes it was more or less like ‘how much can I get out of everybody?’ But instead of that being the case, my brother felt genuine gratitude because he didn’t even know half of the people who donated.”
Craig is still in an inpatient treatment facility now and will stay there until January 31.
“My brother is doing amazing,” Kayden said. “We had him in treatment programs in the past, but usually other programs would put him on drugs in order to recover from heroin. This is a different approach. He took Suboxone for a week and completely cut that off; now he’s not on any other medication.”
While fundraisers for addiction treatment seem quite common on sites that allow for independent fundraisers to be set up, unfortunately, memorial fundraisers for drug addicts are even more common. But even when fundraisers are set up after tragic events, they can help those who were indirectly affected by addiction and are trying to recover.
On July 15, 2016, Carol Cooper of Hewitt, NJ, lost her only son Brian to a combination of heroin and fentanyl. Her son suffered from severe anxiety and was given the deadly mixture he was told would help him but instead made his heart stop and he died instantly.
“My son had separation anxiety disorder when he was young, and he couldn’t sleep so he always looked for Ambien and after a while that didn’t work anymore,” she said. “He never injected drugs, and he was never in rehab because I never knew he was on drugs. It was shocking.”
Last October, Cooper decided to use a funding website to raise money. So far, she raised more than half of the amount she aims to get, and was able to create a non-profit organization called A Life for Brian, which allows her to recover from the tragic loss by using her creativity, while at the same time helping people struggling with addiction.
“I was a special education teacher for nine years, and before my son passed I created these teddy bears to help children who were bullied,” she said. “I had won many awards for the bears, and they were featured in many magazines. When my son passed something told me to continue doing that but to gear the entire concept towards drug addiction.”
The teddy bears developed by Cooper come in two styles: One to help people build positive self-esteem during recovery treatment; another to help those who have lost a loved one to addiction – proceeds from sales and donations from the fundraiser will go to recovering addicts.
“I took a lot of time and came up with this really good tool, a tri-fold brochure that tells people all the different things they need to do while they’re in recovery to build self-esteem. It works for kids when they feel like they’re not going to make it,” Cooper said. “I couldn’t save my son’s life, but if I can save another person’s life then I will understand why I am still here and my son is not.”
