Tyler’s Light expands effort to fight youth drug addiction

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Five TV specials. Five annual 5K fundraisers. Two hundred fifty schools visited, more than 130,000 students reached. Two million-plus website hits. Countless awards and recognitions.

The mission of Tyler’s Light is about reaching individuals, not reaching numerical goals. But that doesn’t mean the numbers aren’t impressive.

The Pickerington nonprofit was formed in 2011 following the death of 2007 Pickerington High School North graduate Tyler Campbell from a heroin overdose. It picked up steam in early 2012 when 2010 Pickerington High School Central graduate Marin Riggs died the same way.

The purpose of Tyler’s Light: to help people recognize signs of drug abuse and addiction in their friends and loved ones, and to provide the resources necessary to help them deal with those problems, as well as promote the importance of a drug-free lifestyle. And it has made significant gains in the years since its inception.

In recent years, the organization has also been featured in documentaries and TV shows focused on opiate addiction, particularly among athletes. Addiction among athletes is an area of particular interest for Tyler’s Light, as its namesake was a star football player whose heroin habit was born out of a prescription painkiller dependency that followed an on-field injury.

Programs that have featured Tyler’s Light over the last few years include 60 Minutes (twice), HBO Real Sports, BTN’s The Journey and a DIRECTV documentary titled Locker Room Addiction.

One of the organization’s biggest assets it its website, www.tylerslight.com, which recently topped 2 million hits. As common a problem as addiction has become, many people simply don’t know where to turn when it affects someone they care about, and the Tyler’s Light website offers a plethora of resources, including videos, hotline numbers and information on support groups, rehabilitation facilities and recognizing signs of addiction.

“Resources are really important because people don’t know where to turn,” says Wayne Campbell, president of Tyler’s Light and Tyler’s father.

The organization is also working on resource cards full of information that can be handed out. It has already put together bookmarks with facts on addiction and encouragement for those who are concerned about their friends and loved ones to speak up.

Tyler’s Light has been running a support group for family members of addicts in Pickerington for years, and recently added one in Lancaster to better accommodate residents in the southern parts of Fairfield County. Family members of drug addicts often feel alone in their problems, and the support groups allow them to interact with others in the same situation, Campbell says.

“It’s a great resource for parents or a spouse of someone with a substance abuse issue,” he says. “At the time that you find out (about a loved one’s substance problems), you think you are the only one if your community who has a loved one with an addiction.”

The Pickerington support group meets at 7 p.m. Tuesdays at Peace United Methodist Church, 235 Diley Rd. The Lancaster support group meets at 7 p.m. Thursdays at Lancaster City Council Chambers, 111 S. Broad St.

Tyler’s Light also helps coordinate a grief support group at 7 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month at the OhioHealth Pickerington Medical Campus, 1010 Refugee Rd. An OhioHealth psychologist facilitates the discussion.

“It is specifically for parents who have lost a child to an accidental overdose,” Campbell says.

As with the general addiction support groups, a key component of the grief group meetings is to help attendees overcome the social stigma associated with addiction and understand that it’s a biological condition, not a choice, for the addict.

“They’re in the same boat (as support group participants),” Campbell says. “There is that stigma associated with addiction, and a lot of parents, after losing a child, will withdraw.”

And Campbell has continued with one of the central elements of Tyler’s Light’s outreach: speaking engagements to groups, particularly at high schools. He’s hit 250 schools in 10 states thus far, for a total of approximately 135,000 students.

Some of the elements of those presentations have been overhauled lately: statistics updated, messages refined and new twists added, including a video that mimics a popular video game called Crossy Road. But one central element remains: the importance of speaking up.

Studies show that teenagers, Campbell says, have less ability to foresee negative consequences than do adults. A given teenager is less likely to think something bad might happen to him or her – but certainly has the capacity to recognize risks in another person’s life. And if a young person is developing a drug problem, his or her friends will be the first to notice.

“The parent will be the last one to know,” Campbell says.

Another part of this outreach to young people comes through Drug Free Clubs of America, a national endeavor that not only encourages students to sign pledges that they will not use drugs, but organizes drug testing to hold them accountable. There are chapters at both Pickerington high schools, and it’s radiated from there to high schools in the Ross County, Southwest Licking and Circleville school districts.

Tyler’s Light’s in-school efforts are more important than ever now, says Campbell. A Kaiser Family Foundation recently ranked Ohio No. 1 in the U.S. for accidental overdose deaths.

“This is not a school problem, it’s a community problem,” he says. “But the schools have a captive audience of our youth.”

In addition to the donation link on its website, Tyler’s Light raises money through a handful of local fundraisers. A golf outing is held over the summer, and the sixth annual Tyler’s Light 5K is slated for May 6 at Toll Gate Middle School.

The nonprofit often works to provide resources to other organizations. For example, it recently worked with Solstice Sleep Products to provide 50 sets of mattresses and box springs to a Piketon rehabilitation facility run by New Beginnings Outreach Ministries.

Garth Bishop is managing editor. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.

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