He could have chosen to grieve privately. But ever since the overdose death of one of his granddaughters, Drew Scott has been a public advocate for awareness and resources to prevent opioid abuse and fatalities.
Now, Mr. Scott, a retired anchor for the News 12 Long Island channel who lives in Westhampton, is setting up a formal nonprofit organization in honor of his late granddaughter, Hallie Rae Ulrich, a Pierson High School graduate who was found dead in East Hampton in 2017 at the age of 22.
"It was very tragic," Mr. Scott said this week. "She had been fighting addiction for about a year and a half. . . . I've been carrying on the work, although it's been interrupted by the Covid-19 virus."
Mr. Scott first co-chaired a task force in Southampton Town to combat opioid addiction, and still serves on the committee as a member. He also helped Angie Carpenter, the Islip Town supervisor, start a similar group there.
"We've been doing Narcan training and talks at schools. We've been doing interviews on TV and in newspapers," he said. "We're trying to make people aware. We've found that awareness really does help bring the tragic numbers down -- except now, when we're in an epidemic, the number seems to be going back up. We'll be able to get back to full speed and do our educational work."
Mr. Scott's friend Rudolph F.X. Migliore, an attorney in Commack, helped him set up the foundation. In a blog post on his website, Mr. Migliore said Mr. Scott "has instilled a glimmer of hope" in him.
"The fight against opioids has growingly become dear and persistent to me," Mr. Migliore wrote. "I hope to make the streets safe for generations to come. Heroin and other opioids have become an epidemic. Every year, overdoses due to opioids take the lives of hundreds of individuals on Long Island."
Indeed, in 2018 Southampton Town issued a report based on the findings of its opioid addiction task force that said that more than 64,000 people in this country died of opioid overdoses in 2016 -- more than the number of Americans who died in the Vietnam War. In 2017, 359 people in Suffolk County died of overdoses.
The task force's recommendations included creating a program to give school credits to students who take part in a youth anti-opioid coalition, developing more resources for treatment and recovery, including online options and more "sober housing," creating more recreational opportunities for those in recovery, and finding ways to remove the stigma of recovery programs. The full list of recommendations can be found online at bit.ly/2CarUGK.
Mr. Scott has received much support from his wife, Vivian Gillies, and from his daughter, Sally Gillies, as he works to form the nonprofit group, which will be called the Hallie Rae Foundation.
"What I'd like to do is get people back on track and realize how addiction is really devastating," Mr. Scott said. "My first instinct was to bury it and not say anything publicly. But then I thought, 'It's happening to so many people, and I might be able to reach some people.' That's why I decided to speak up."
