In this Heartware Story we hear how Sandy, an employee at Sneade’s Ace has turned the passing of her son into community outreach. See how Ben and Dana Banyasz from her Ace store family have supported Sandy’s mission in memory of Chase.

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[Music] Thank you Sneeze Ace Home Center has been family To me it is a family community Environment here first time I came to Sneads for employment I was a single mom I was working a full-time job and I Needed the additional income sneeds took Me in like a family member from day one I probably stayed maybe about a year and A half until Chase graduated from high School and got a job [Music] Sandy is amazing she draws you like a Magnet in ways that it's hard to explain She is somebody that you would follow Anywhere because she's passionate she's Got a heart of gold and she's gonna love For everybody and so when tragedy hit Her you kind of would think maybe it Would change but it didn't I uh and my mom uh that lost her son to A drug overdose Chase was only 21 years Old he unfortunately made a horrible Misled choice and when I was notified That my son's death was fentanyl Intoxication I had no idea what fentanyl Was Everybody at this store here at Owings Was just in shock it's not it's not who Chase was exactly Chase was very vibrant He was humble he was an artist he was a Musician he was a kind kid he had a lot Of friends in this County

We had a great relationship uh mom and Son we talked about everything upon Losing him I was angry at him I was Angry at Society I was angry at myself For not knowing I needed to get the word out I decided To establish a non-profit to educate our Parents Empower Our Youth and promote Hope and recovery and we called it Positive Vibes I decided I've got to get Something out into the public quick so I Did some research I saw that the DEA had A program but it was only kind of In-House and it was the mock bedroom set Up I wanted to expand on that I gathered A bunch of items from Chase's bedroom And I did some research online to see Where are our children getting this Information on how to hide their drugs And that's what the hidden in plain Sight exhibit is all about it allows Parents to come in and do a scavenger Hunt test their skills see if they can Find the signs of risky teenage behavior And to see if they can find drugs Throughout the bedroom if you have a Suspicion do it yeah before you regret It yeah before you regret it before it's Too late After I lost my son I came back to work For Sneads they welcomed me back with Open arms and once again I was with Family they knew about Chase's passing Because they love me and I love them and

Because Chase used to work here too We view all our staff members as family So when something like that happens it Hurts and when someone like Sandy is Passionate about something we want to Build on and expand it for them they got Involved with me in the Positive Vibes Mission because that that's all I talked About they've been a wonderful support And here I am sitting in their parking Lot to encourage parents to come in so That we can educate them on substance Misuse there's multiple things that We've done with Sandy you know we Originally started with the purple bulbs Which on August 31st is international Overdose Awareness Day Not only would we Donate or heavily discount these bulbs For them to distribute throughout our Communities we actually light up our Stores and and it's really cool to see The towns and houses lit up [Music] Thank you it's just awesome to see how That awareness has spread I want to Welcome all of you to the fourth annual This is me Color Run blast Sandy Mattingly started the Color Run to Bring families together with their Children and to help them focus on being Healthy and happy and substance free In my research I found that we didn't Really have any kind of activities that Brought together Our Youth and our

Community and our families and our Resources the benefit of recovery Related events such as the Color Run is To show awareness within our community To show that resources are here and help Shatter that stigma of the opioid Epidemic we lost my beautiful son to Fentanyl intoxication if you To encourage our youth Empower our youth Because you're beautiful people okay and We celebrate I think it was my son he's raining down On me mom I've got a great idea we need A festival we need a celebration I'm a Big kid so I was like Hey we're doing That we'll be written behind this full Force the store and particularly Ben and Dana have donated a lot of products and Stuff to this cause they provided Materials that I needed sponsorship Donations they encouraged their staff to Participate the setup and the actual Disbursement of paint on people [Music] It is just a giant colorful celebration Of happy healthy and substance-free Spirit I love it and um Our parents have left the event with Narcan which is an overdose reversal Medication that everybody needs to know About I retired from the police department After 40 years my principal perspective Was arriving on the tragedy and trying

To figure out what happened we have to Solve this we're going to do it we're Going to make change so parents Reach Out Reach Out are you substance free [Music] My parents would always say growing up It takes a village to raise kids and we Say that we hope that here at Sneads We're part of somebody's Village [Music] Thank you [Music] Thank you