By Mary O’KEEFE

The inaugural speaker series of the Crescenta Valley Lions Club, hosted at St. Luke’s of the Mountains Episcopal Church/Sadler Hall, had two speakers who brought an uncomfortable but necessary light to a sad reality.

The night began with Arick Gevorkian sharing his story of loss. His son died due to a fentanyl overdose (see “A Shared Pain” in the Feb. 29 issue of CV Weekly).

Then it was Victoria Malone’s turn to stand up and share. Like Gevorkian, Malone lost her son, Chace, to a fentanyl overdose.

“I am a product of Crescenta Valley. I attended Crescenta Valley High School, was on the advanced dance team, was a cheerleader and a song leader my senior year,” she said.

Malone had worked as the executive director of the Montrose-Verdugo City Chamber of Commerce and currently manages Sunday’s Montrose Harvest Market.

“I am the mother of a son who died of an accidental overdose,” she said. “To say our family did not know what we did not know is an understatement. When we finally saw the depths of Chace’s struggle it was in the middle of COVID, at the height of COVID.”

She added that during that time there did not seem to be a lot of discussion of the effects of anxiety, depression and isolation, which often lead to self-harm and self- medication.

“That often leads to substance misuse, disorder and sometimes death,” she said. “After three agonizing months of waiting for the coroner’s results I was finally told my son died of an accidental overdose. Whatever he had taken was tainted with fentanyl.”

Malone and her family had no idea what fentanyl was at the time and, in fact, didn’t know what the term “accidental overdose” meant.

“How could it be an accident if my son purposely took that pill? That one pill. The coroner advised me [he] had concluded, based on the amount that Chace ingested, he was not attempting to overdose or to kill himself … although it was self-induced, it was an accident,” she said.

Chace was found with four self-help and motivational books next to him.

“So it seemed he was not trying to take his own life and yet here I sat – three months later with my youngest son dead,” she added. “His life was taken.”

A few months before his death, when his family found that Chace was struggling with his mental health issues, they tried to find resources to get him help. However, they hit many roadblocks. They found access to quality services was difficult to find; in addition inflated pricing was another issue.

“It was deflating, as a parent, to continually hit those roadblocks,” Malone said.

Looking back at their attempts to get him help she remembers how humiliated she felt by those she had hoped to get help from. His family was able to get him into therapy prior to his death but Malone felt there was something he was hiding.

“We had just shared a wonderful Christmas as a family,” she said. “How could this happen? Sounds familiar, right? How could this happen?”

That question and Chace’s death started a chain reaction of events that included not only her family but also Chace’s friends who, with Malone, started the Chace Taylor Malone Impact Foundation LA.

The Foundation focuses on helping not just those who are struggling but also their loved ones find resources that can support them. They also raise funds to help pay for those resources for those who cannot afford help.

“Our mission is to service individuals and families in our community who suffer from anxiety, depression and/or isolation, which as I said earlier can often lead to self-medication, self-harm and substance misuse and abuse,” she said. “Since the inception of the Foundation, we have provided therapy [we have paid for] for five individuals.”

For example, through fundraising they were able to provide financial help and guidance to an individual who was homeless and were able to get him/her insurance support and into a private rehabilitation center. The Foundation was also able to provide nutritional and health support to another individual who was suffering.

But Malone wanted to provide more outreach. After speaking to some in the community who were familiar with resources and the need for support, she created the Crescenta Valley Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition (CVSAPC).

“We believe local problems require local solutions,” Malone said. “The mission of the coalition is to establish and strengthen collaboration in our community among the public and private agencies, [as well as] federal and state support, for our efforts to prevent and reduce youth substance use through a comprehensive support.”

The goal of the CVSAPC is to get as much data as possible on the issue of drug use, specifically fentanyl, and mental health in the foothill community. Malone said the best way to approach a problem is to gather as much information as possible to find what areas need to be addressed first.

This role of leadership in a drug prevention coalition is not something Malone thought she would be doing; however, she is driven by not wanting other parents to get that call about their child’s overdose. She wants to be there for others because she knows the desperation and fear one has when trying to find a resource to help their child, their loved one.

And she is driven by her son’s spirit.

“When he was here he was compassionate and caring and he stood up for those who didn’t have a voice. The formation of the Impact Foundation was led by his friends … and that will tell you the type of friend he was that his friends were willing to go out on a limb and create a non-profit,” she said.

And those friends continue to support the coalition.

To find out more information or to donate to the Chace Taylor Malone Impact Foundation LA visit https:theimpactfoundationla.org. There is a tab for CVSAPC as well on the website. The coalition is welcoming more community members to take part.