A Celebration of Women™

is elated to Celebrate the Life of this woman who truly understands the Power of Love !

Through the death of her own child, she reached for spiritual guidance and was lead onto a path, that today she calls her very own Purpose in Life. Through the drug overdose of her son, this Woman has now devoted her life to helping parents across North America to end the shame and stigma; and Speak Out!

 

SECRETS Keep You SICK!

Please join us in Celebrating the Life of a wonderful woman here now the help the Women of our World.

 

 
 
 

WOMAN of ACTION™

 

 

Ginger Katz

“Silence is a killer when it comes to children and drug abuse,”

 

said Ginger Katz, founder and CEO of The Courage to Speak Foundation.

 

 

In her own words,

 

Ginger shares the story of her family tradegy, her awakening,  

finding her PURPOSE in LIFE;

 with a ‘knowing‘ that the Universe

will go to any length to inspire us to help others to

Take Action!

 

“On September 10, 1996, I awoke to every mother’s nightmare. I found my 20–year–old son Ian dead in his bed of an accidental heroin overdose.

Ian James Eaccarino was a promising college student with everything to live for. He was bright, athletic, popular, and handsome. He was dearly loved by his family and by his many friends. Drugs destroyed his life.

Ian started using tobacco and marijuana in the eighth grade. He was in denial about the problem, minimizing it as so many young people do. I was unaware that he was using drugs, thinking the changes were just adolescent behavior. Then I attended a drug awareness program, which opened my eyes to what was really happening in our home.

When Ian was drug–tested in high school, we learned that, with a friend’s help, he had switched his urine sample with that of the friend’s baby brother to cover up his drug use. Subsequently, Ian had a surprise visit from us at the school to get him re–tested and he tested positive for marijuana.

Ian agreed to go to counseling, but was not able to get in touch with the emotional problems that were at the root of his risky behaviors and continued drug use. I saw his ongoing pain and had great fears for him. But Ian became very good at disguising his drug habit. All through high school, he excelled on the baseball team and was the third highest scorer on the lacrosse team. He insisted he was okay, but he really wasn’t.

In his senior year of high school, his car was firebombed in the driveway of our home. In retrospect, we realized it was drug related, but at the time, the explanation he gave us made sense. It was all a lie. Drug activity is typically associated with violence and deception.

Nine months before he died, Ian and two friends snorted heroin for the first time. He was a college sophomore at the time. One boy became scared, one became sick — and Ian liked it. When he finally went to drug rehabilitation, he told me: “Mom, there is a smorgasbord of drugs at college. If you don’t have the money, they would give it to you for free and then you’re hooked.”

During his last summer, while he was in counseling and recovery, Ian renewed his close relationships with all of us. My son came back to me. We talked a lot and played tennis. He enjoyed playing golf with his step–dad Larry. To his doting big sister Candace, who has Downs Syndrome, he was a ray of sunshine.

He shared some things from his heart with me the summer before he died and I began to develop some insight into the private pain he had held onto for so long. He had so much regret over his drug use.

“Mom, I messed up. It is not Dad’s fault, or Larry (his stepfather), or your fault. I take responsibility. I messed up.”

My heart was broken. I knew that kids mess up; he was paying for it with his spirit, his intellect, and his life. That last summer, when he realized what he had done to his life and to all of us, his pain became excruciating. But he couldn’t stop. The evening before he died, I realized that he had relapsed. He knew that I was scared and that it hurt me so.

He said to me,

“Mom, I want to see the doctor in the morning and I don’t want to move in with my friends.”

That was the deal. Later, he came upstairs and said,

“I’m sorry Mom.”

It keeps ringing in my ears. Never did I think he would go downstairs and do it one more time. Even with all the remorse, the drugs were bigger than he was. He died in his sleep and I found him before I went for my morning run. My baby did not have a second chance. Neighbors told me my cries for help to 911 that morning were heard two blocks away.

My life changed forever. I realized that Ian’s dog Sunny had climbed up a steep flight of stairs in the middle of the night wanting to wake me up. But I didn’t hear him. I had slept soundly that night for the first time in a long while, relieved by Ian’s promise to seek help in the morning.

I remember sitting on Ian’s bed the day he died. I looked around his room, which will be my office once construction on our house is completed, and asked myself how this could have happened. Why did Ian slip away in the night? On the top of Ian’s desk was a DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) eraser.

We were good parents. Larry, Ian’s stepfather, was devoted to my children and was Ian’s coach in several sports. We thought we had everything taken care of. What went wrong? The guilt was overwhelming.

Since Ian’s death, many people have asked me to speak about his struggle with his addiction and its affect on our family and friends. The Courage to Speak Foundation was born with the mission to save lives by empowering youth to be drug free. My husband Larry and I have educated ourselves about the dangers of drugs and alcohol to young people. We provide the latest information about substance abuse in our presentation and via our website, www.couragetospeak.org. The most important thing we have learned is that secrets and silence are our common enemies. This is why we travel throughout our community, our state and our nation, inspiring youth, parents and educators to have the courage to speak…so that no other family will suffer the terrible loss that ours did.”

  

“This was my promise to Ian.”

 

 

“Every child will be exposed to drugs, so parents need to find out everything they can,” she said. Children are educated about the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse by teachers, medical professionals, law enforcement officials, but they can never hear it enough, she said.

“Drug dealers are relentless because it’s a business, so we have to be relentless,” Katz said.

 

Find Book Here: http://www.couragetospeak.org/sunnysstory.htm

 

 

Ginger Katz recently wrote the novel Sunny’s Story, which brought her message to life this year through the eyes of the family dog, Sunny, a keen and intelligent observer of the damage done by alcohol and drug use to her master, Ian.

 

Sunny’s New Website: http://www.sunnysstory.com/

 

Sunny’s Story  … the book.

This is a heart warming, but tragic story that will make readers, young and old, think twice about choices being made every day.  In her own words, Ginger describes her Sunny’s Story as such;

Sunny tried to wake me the night Ian died. Sunny climbed four flights of stairs and jumped on my bed. But Ian’s words had rocked me to sleep that night. “Mom I want to see the doctor in the morning. I need to take care of my problem.” It was the first good night’s sleep I had in the five months since I learned Ian was addicted to drugs. Sunny’s message was undelivered. When I awoke for my morning run at 6am I went downstairs and heard Ian’s TV was very loud. I went to turn the TV off and that’s when I found him. After we talked the night before Ian went downstairs and did the drug one more time. Ian died in his sleep – he didn’t have a second chance. My cries for help were heard two blocks away.

Years later, I was sitting on my deck with Sunny and my best friend. I looked at Sunny and said,

 “If Sunny could talk – he would have a lot to say.”

That pivotal moment is when I decided to write the book from Sunny’s perspective.
I made a promise to Ian the day he died to do everything in my power to prevent this tragedy from happening to another family. I established the Courage to Speak^® Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving young lives.

Sunny’s Story has been purchased by many people in over 40 states and is read at dinner tables with children, parents and grandparents. It is part of the Courage to Speak Foundation Drug Prevention Curriculum for Grades 4-7 taught in many schools and is a stand-alone book for elementary, middle and high school students and parents.

 

 

“I just hope I’m making a difference in someone’s life, in kids’ lives. When a child comes to a crossroad in their life, when they’re going to make a decision about drug use, I want them to remember Ian’s story and take the path that shines Ian’s light. I want them to have the courage to say No,’ I want them to know drugs and alcohol are not healthy for them,” Katz said.

 

Ginger Katz is a nationally renowned advocate and public speaker for drug prevention, awareness and education. She is the founder of the Courage to Speak® Foundation, Inc and has developed curricula for elementary through high schools as well are Courageous Parenting 101 a prevention program for parents to are themselves with the tools to keep their children safe. Sunny’s Story, her first book, is targeted to 8 to 13 year-olds, their parents and teachers. 

In the last 12 years, Ms. Katz has touched over a million parents, students and officials in communities across the country with her story. She is a regular speaker in schools, colleges, law enforcement, TV , Radio and other forums as well as community, private and medical organizations. Ginger Katz has presented to the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the

National Association of Independent Schools, the National Association of Drug Court Professionals and the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), as well as over 1000 school and parent audiences.

 

Ginger‘s message is clear…!

 

Parents and their children need to talk openly and honestly on all of life’s challenges, but particularly on dangers of alcohol and drug use. Over the past 11 years, working closely with Norwalk public schools and education leaders, Ginger Katz has developed the Courage to Speak school health curriculum for elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools; and now a new parent drug prevention curriculum called Courageous Parenting 101. Her message is spreading as it resonates in over 1000 presentations across the length and breadth of the country that have reached hundreds of thousands teenagers, parents, teachers, and others at many forums such as conferences, corporations, schools, town halls, church and other forum.

 

  

Ginger Katz’s work has received state and national recognition and she is a recognized figure in the world of substance abuse prevention and treatment. She served as Honorary Chair of the 2006 Parent National Vigil in Washington, D.C. and she was a recipient of a Prevention Award from the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency and the Federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

 

 

Courage to Speak was named a Presidential Points of Light honoree in 2003. (http://www.pointsoflight.org/)

 

Ginger Katz was named to Connecticut’s 2000 Woman of the Year by the Connecticut Post. She also received the Junior League of Stamford-Norwalk Community Leadership Award in 2005.  

 

 Ginger Katz is a frequent speaker at national and statewide conferences around the United States, most notably: keynote speech at the FSAM Conference at the University of Florida, 2008, JMATE – Joint Meeting on Adolescent Prevention and Treatment, 2008, UCONN Providers Conference, Waterbury Alliance Doctors Group, Keynote at Circle Around Families in Indiana, Keynote at National Narcotic Officers Association, Keynote at Connecticut PTA 105th Convention, Principal Leadership Conference in CA, Secondary School Conference in CT, CADCA National Youth Conference, Connecticut Association of Schools Winter Conference, ONDCP Summit, Pride International, and many others.

 

An avid sportswoman and athlete,

Ginger Katz lives with her husband Larry, daughter Candi and their beagle, Henry, in Norwalk, CT.

 

Email Ginger Here:  [email protected]

 

Countless lives have already been affected by heroin addiction, so take measures that will assure yours won’t be one of them.

 

 

A Celebration of Women™

sends our blessings and love to this Woman of Spirit and welcome her with open arms into the

Alumni of WOMEN of ACTION™.
 

 

Brava Ginger!