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Suffolk County Police Department, Purple Rock Project Distributes 1800 Narcan Kits & Helps Grieving Families

Community, Charity & Cause

By Published: August 26 2024

LongIsland.com

The partnership combined education with healing for parents who have lost children to O.D. & Fentanyl.

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Here, SCPD Emergency Medical Service Officer Jason Byron explains how to use Naloxone (Narcan) the antidote to opioid intoxication. Credit: Carole Trottere

The Suffolk County Police Department and the Purple Rock Project joined together this summer for seven Live at Five events, in both Patchogue and Bay Shore, to train more than 1800 people in the use of Naloxone (Narcan) by distributing 3,604 doses of the life-saving antidote to opioid overdose. Each kit that people received at no cost contained two doses of the life-saving antidote.

SCPD Emergency Medical Service Officers Jason Byron and Alex Trzepizur conducted the Narcan trainings alongside a “memorial rocks and informational” station run by Purple Rock Project founder and parent Carole Trottere. The Purple Rock Project (PRP) supplies purple painted rocks that can be inscribed with the name of a loved one lost to overdose. 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,” said Trottere, who lost her son Alex in 2018. “One young woman said she had so many names to write on a rock that she “ran out of room.”

Throughout the summer, about 50 family members, friends, neighbors, and co-workers created rocks in memory of someone they knew who had died of a substance-related cause, mostly from fentanyl. 

Live at 5 attendees were educated about Narcan and the risks associated with illicit drug use.  Byron also talked to many young teens and adults about the 911 Good Samaritan Law, which allows people to call 911 without fear of arrest if they are having a drug or alcohol overdose that requires emergency medical care or if they witness someone overdosing. 

Both the SCPD’s Behavioral Health Unit, Sgt. Christopher Ingoglia, Police Officers Bridget Topping and Gina Lauricella, along with Sergeant Joseph Steigele and Police Officers Jesse Levy, Shakara Richardson, Justin Fernandez and Karl Allison from SCPD Community Relations Bureau, all assisted with the Narcan training and answered questions.