Man organizing ‘Remembrance Walk’
After losing brother, sister to addiction, he wants to help others
QUEENSBURY, N.Y. » Bob Dean can’t bring his brother and sister back, but he wants their tragic deaths from heroin addiction to keep others from meeting a similar fate.
A former Queensbury High School sports standout, who played minor league baseball, Dean is now a special education teacher and coach.
His brother, Shawn, died from a heroin overdose two years ago at 30, and his 40-year-old sister, Angie, passed away on Jan. 3, following a long struggle with addiction.
Dean is organizing a downtown Glens Falls “Remembrance Walk” from 3-5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 16, starting at Cool Insuring Arena.
“My goal is honor those who have passed on,” he said. “We want our voices to reach across the nation, where maybe we can get funding here for a state-ofthe-art treatment and research center in Glens Falls. I’ve never heard of any town winning this battle, anywhere in America. Why can’t we be the first?”
The situation is pervasive throughout the area. Saratoga County Board of Supervisors Chairman Ed Kinowski, of Stillwater, has made combating the heroin/opioids epidemic a top priority for 2018.
The problem is putting a financial drain on almost every department of county government including the sheriff’s and district attorney’s offices, courts, probation, public health and Social Services.
“We need good educational programs that can bring the problem to light,” Kinowski has said. “I think everybody is seeking a way ahead.”
Dean agrees that education is the number one goal.
“I have recruited my fellow Queensbury football coaches to work with families and local doctors to ensure that when an athlete is injured, they are prescribed an appropriate amount of the correct pain medicine and not a blank, 30-pill addiction sentence,” he said. “I also plan to speak to our high school
health classes to share stories of their fellow alumni, my brother and sister, and how their once infinite potential for beautiful lives was struck down by a deadly, but beat-able epidemic and how they, the students, can be a part of the solution. Their future depends on it.”
Working with Dr. Denise Buher, of Queensburybased Orthopedic & Spine Physical Therapy, Dean hopes to promote alternative types of pain management, apart from drugs.
Like many people, Shawn and Angie Dean’s paths to addiction began with a medical ailment, followed by a prescription for pain pills. And like many people, they got hooked, but could no longer obtain drugs legally from a doctor, so they turned to an illegal and less expensive option — heroin.
Former Queensbury football coach John Irion supports Dean’s efforts. Irion is now head coach at Granville High School, which like most schools, has clear policies on drug abuse and consequences. Coaches are well-trained in recognizing and reporting symptoms.
However, drug abuse involving pain killers doesn’t always start with injuries or medical conditions. Sometimes, it’s simply kids experimenting and wanting to get high, Irion said.
“Sometimes it seems to come in bunches,” he said. “My guess is that someone started selling and pockets of abuse would happen.”
That’s why Dean believes change has happen within the legal system, in addition to prevention education.
“We need tougher state laws,” he said. “Anyone selling drugs that kill people should be charged with homicide. Stay away from our kids and families.”
Dean said his sister’s problem was no secret. One time, she nearly died and was brought back with NARCAN, a nasal spray used for emergency treatment of an opioid overdose.
Recently, following treatment at a clinic, she took a high dosage of drugs comparable to what she was using before treatment.
“It was like a bomb going off in her bloodstream,” Dean said. The effect was fatal. Shawn’s drug-related death was more shocking because he exhibited no signs of addiction, Bob Dean said.
“There were no warning signs,” he said. “We didn’t know he was doing it. He’d gone to Great Escape earlier that day. My father died five months after my brother, of cancer and a broken heart.”
In the wake of these tragedies, Dean could either pick up the pieces and move on, or fight back.
“I am choosing the latter,” he said, and he’s hoping others will join him because nobody knows when someone they love will be the next victim.
Dean may be contacted by email at rdean@queensburyschool.org.