More than 50 participants in the May 18, 2025 The Beat Lives On 5K run to honor CJ Neumann were trained by the Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD) in the use of Narcan, the antidote to an overdose, and received a kit containing two doses of the antidote. Research indicates that fentanyl is now the number one cause of death in the United States for people between the ages of 18-45 years.
The training was conducted by SCPD Emergency Medical Service Officers Jason Byron and Alex Trzepizur, who work closely with the SCPD’s Behavioral Health Unit.
“The number of people who were willing to take five minutes out of their day to learn about opioids, fentanyl and the overdose epidemic was impressive,” said Byron.
Visitors also stopped by a table with purple rocks intended to be decorated with the names of loved ones lost to overdose and fentanyl poisoning.
Called the Purple Rock Project by the mothers who provide the rocks, the finished rocks are placed around parks and other locations, including Gabriel's Giving Tree Memorial & Recovery Garden at Suffolk County Environmental Center at the Scully Estate, 550 South Bay Avenue in Islip, as a reminder of how many Long Islanders have died from O.D. and fentanyl poisonings.
“Writing a child’s name on a rock may seem like a small thing, but I think it is a way of saying to the world that their child was once here,” said Carole Trottere, who lost her son Alex in 2018 to a fentanyl poisoning.
For more information about the memorial rocks and “The Purple Rock Project” contact Carole Trottere at catrottere@gmail.com.