A sign advertises free naloxone outside Bream Memorial Presbyterian Church on the West Side of Charleston, W.Va. It was one of 16 sites across Kanawha County where volunteers distributed the opioid overdose antidote during Save a Life Day on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (Lori Kersey | West Virginia Watch)
During Save a Life Day Thursday, Abby Fife and Derek Hudson made their way to a handful of their neighbors on Charleston’s West Side, distributing naloxone and bright yellow boxes for the businesses to put them in.
Hudson is the executive director of the Bream’s Neighborhood S.H.O.P., a drop-in center that operates at Bream Memorial Presbyterian Church in Charleston, W.Va. He and his team, including Fife, an employee of the nonprofit, distributed the “wall boxes,” which are converted pencil boxes with adhesives that can be used to attach them to walls, to 15 businesses on the West Side.
“It’s an extension of what the S.H.O.P.’s already doing,” Hudson said of participating in the annual naloxone distribution event. “We fully believe that putting Narcan in the hands of all the people who walk through our doors helps save lives daily. The more we can get out there, the more awareness we can put out there, the more likely there’s a chance tonight that somebody’s going to be alive because of this.”