The Port Jefferson Farmers Market recently donated table space to the Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD) and parents who have lost their children to overdose to conduct Narcan training. The unique partnership is a new outreach program by the police to give grieving parents who have lost children and loved ones to overdose and fentanyl poisonings, with an opportunity to honor and remember their child’s life.
The SCPD trained 100 people on the use of Narcan (Common name, Naloxone, the antidote to overdose) and gave out 89 Narcan kits alongside a “memorial rocks and informational” station run by the parents, including Lori Carbonaro and Carole Trottere. The parents brought purple painted rocks to the farmers market that people inscribed with a loved one’s name.
Memorial rocks were available for personalizing at the farmers market, alongside Narcan training by the SCPD. The rocks are placed at several parks, or parents can take the rock with them. From left are Suffolk County Police Officer Bridget Topping, of the Behavioral Health Unit and parent advocates Lori Carbonaro and Carole Trottere. Photo Credit: Carole Trottere
The rocks are then placed around parks and other locations, including Gabriel’s Giving Tree Memorial & Recovery Garden at Suffolk County Environmental Center at the Scully Estate, 550 South Bay Avenue in Islip, 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.
For more information about the memorial rocks and “The Purple Rock Project” contact Carole Trottere at [email protected] or visit The Purple Rock Project on Facebook.
If you have lost a loved one to O.D. or fentanyl poisoning, and you would like to incorporate a Narcan training into a memorial event for your child, or loved one, please contact Police Officer Bridget Topping at [email protected].
