After their son died of a heroin overdose last year, Bill and Tammy Schmincke knew they had to do something to help others avoid their heartbreak.
Stop the Heroin began as a way to honor their son Steven, found dead in his daughter’s bedroom inside his parent’s Egg Harbor Township home at just 26.
In the year since there have been lots of tears. His parents, like the growing number who have lost children to addiction, have worked hard to keep going through their grief.
But there have also been hugs, laughs and triumphs.
On Sunday, the day before the one-year anniversary of Steven Shmincke’s death, a Recovery Walk raised nearly $24,000 for Stop the Heroin, which will pay to get those just out of drug rehab to get into sober living. There are loads of places that offer these sort of services. For example, you could check out this
nyc sober living accommodation to show what is actually on offer to people who need help in their recovery. Most houses charge about $150 per week, and require $300 down.
So, while the recovering addict works to get a job and stay sober, Stop the Heroin gets them into a home.
Sunday two more women were put into sober living courtesy of the Stop the Heroin, bringing the total to 54.
And the couple is just getting started.
“We’re going into the trenches,” Tammy Schmincke has said. "We're going into the mud. We're going into the fire to help pull these kids out and help them out."
In December, they opened a sober living house in Pleasantville in Steven’s name; it's relatively similar to the
Ascension House - Structured Sober Living scheme, and is already answering calls in the night of those looking for help for themselves or their loved ones. Given rides to hospitals and rehabs. And they’ve even pushed for more from both the health care community and the legal system in finding help — quickly available and affordable — for those struggling.
A protest outside the Atlantic County Criminal Courthouse attempting to force then-acting Prosecutor Diane Ruberton to address the number of overdoses in the county instead drew the attention of Drug Court Judge Mark Sandson, who listened to the group’s concerns and shared his own personal connection to the epidemic: his daughter’s overdose death.
New Prosecutor Damon Tyner has said his office will now keep track of overdose deaths, which previously had been kept for the county only with the Medical Examiner’s Office.
Tyner was unable to make Sunday’s walk, but has said the opioid epidemic in Atlantic County will be one of the top focuses of his administration.
He plans to incorporate many of the programs of Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph Coronato, who has been called a leader in the drug battle.
