After tragedies from addiction, survivors collaborate to help others
During the past few years Serve Daily has published many articles about Ryan Stream. Many of our readers are familiar with the story of his biological parents having a serious drug addiction problem and were in and out of jail frequently in his child- hood.
He and his brothers were put in separate foster homes. He and his brothers were ad- opted by a police officer and raised as members of the Stream family. That brought a new life to Ryan.
In High School Ryan got involved in drugs and the law. During a sentence hearing Ryan pleaded with the Judge to allow him to enroll in the U.S. Army and serve in Afghanistan.
After two tours of duty and lots of re- flecting on his life, he returned home with a mission to motivate people of all ages to achieve anything they dream of.
His theme is that you write your own story. You may have a bad chapter, but the next chapter can be better. Ryan Stream presents a high energy moti- vational presentation playing the piano and singing lyrics that he wrote and music that he composed.
Now another Ryan enters the picture, Ryan Palmer, who lost his 20-year-old son, Jeremy, to a fatal drug overdose at a party in 2013 in Manti.
Ryan Palmer was mo- tivated to reach out to young people Jeremy’s age with a message of addiction awareness and a different path.
He realized that in this day and age he needed to write, produce, and shoot a music video. A friend told him about Ryan Stream, a musi- cian and motivational speaker who told his story of drug addiction. It is a story of over- coming challenges and making the choices.
Palmer liked the contrast between his son Jeremy and Ryan Stream as a story of tragedy and success based on two people making decisions dif- ferently. Palmer and
Stream met and began to collaborate on a vid- eo that would capture the attention of young people.
Jeremy liked fast cars and motorcycles. He particularly liked “catching air” on his motorcycle and the vid- eo has a stunt motorcy- clist doing a jump and summersault directly over Ryan Stream play- ing the piano on the Bonneville Salt Flats. They had a new cor- vette for a fast automo- bile.
The video was fi- nanced largely by Ryan Palmer with addition- al support from Ryan Stream.
The movie debuted at Ephraim’s Canyon View Park on Sept. 14. Janice Helmick writes about her reflection on this emotional and mo- tivating event.
“Just before sunset the first concert per- former, Tristan Cole, opened with several numbers. Then Ryan Palmer walked up and sat on the front edge of the stage. He told his very personal story of the tragedy of losing his only son to drugs.
It brought tears to many eyes. The story touched me deeply as I have friends and fami- ly who have struggled with drug addiction.
“Everything was qui- et and the sun had gone down. Suddenly the firetruck and am- bulance parked nearby flashed their lights and a spotlight focused on a figure standing on top of the firetruck. It was Ryan Stream. He start- ed singing, climbed off the truck, and walked to the stage. Ryan talked about his life expe- riences of his mother’s suicide, his father’s im- prisonment, of seeing his little brother for the last time, and of meet- ing Officer Stream. He talked about looking in the back of the police car and seeing his little brother and being told he was being adopted by the Stream family. He told of the change that came to his life and how much he loved and appreciated the Stream family the way they ac- cepted him.
“However, he still started to use drugs. He was arrested and stood before a judge He asked the judge to allow him to join the Army and be deployed to Afghani- stan. The judge granted his requested, and he served two tours.
He shared the story of having a daughter and a child on the way when he was deployed the second time, and his daughter’s plea that he come home.”