Students looking to deliver message on opioids to prez
President Trump is due in New Hampshire today to discuss the opioid crisis, and some high school students are hoping to get his ear.
Those involved with the “Makin’ It Happen in the 603 Empower Youth Initiative” will be using Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to try to get Trump’s attention as he stops at the Manchester Fire Station and Manchester Community College, where he plans to hold a roundtable discussion on opioids.
Makin’ It Happen is focused on trying to combat addiction in the Manchester area.
The group also will try to hand a letter to his staff calling for more funding for drug prevention.
Heather McGlauflin, a junior at Goffstown High School involved with the youth coalition, said Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ appearance at an opioid awareness youth summit at Southern New Hampshire University last year motivated them to take action.
“He said he wanted youth to be a part of this,” McGlauflin said, “that he wanted us to be upstanders and not bystanders and that’s what we’re doing, and we’ve done a lot over the past year.”
Some of the group’s projects include creating public service announcements for prescription takeback days and creating prescription safety stickers on how to properly discard bottles of medication.
McGlauflin said she joined the group after hearing stories from her peers about addiction.
“It was like a paradigm shift realizing how bad the epidemic really is and being able to help with all of this, we’re getting our voices heard,” McGlauflin said.
Though the president’s tight schedule, the Secret Service and the time frame of his visit present a challenge for students, they say that the letter, coupled with social media, could reach the president during or after his visit.
The letter to Trump lists ways students responded to Sessions’ call for preventive measures last year, according to McGlauflin.
“I don’t know what we will learn from this,” McGlauflin said. “Maybe (President Trump) has some more challenges we can work with and try to work for.”