Students in Wilkes University’s American Pharmacists Association club chapter walk around the campus as part of a Thursday effort to raise awareness about opioid addiction and the importance of naloxone (Narcan) in preventing deaths.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
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Opioid awareness event co-organizers Jaden Greco, left, and Brianna Honish talk about their lessons in addiction and treatment as students in the Nesbitt School of Pharmacy at Wilkes University. Along with organizing a walk around campus, Thursday’s activities included selling hot dogs and T-shirts to raise money that purchased naloxone, which can reverse fatal effects of an opioid overdose, for the Wilkes-Barre Fire Department.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
WILKES-BARRE — Fire up the charcoal, pile up the shirts and pace around the campus; The Wilkes University Pharmacy Club held its annual Opioid Awareness walk Thursday, coupled with the sale of hot dogs and shirts to raise money for the purchase of Naloxone (Narcan), the life-saving drug that rapidly counteracts opioid overdoses.
“April is Opioid Awareness month,” Jaden Greco explained as students set up tables, arranged shirts and lit some charcoal in a large grill on the Fenner Quadrangle. She and co-organizer Brianna Honish were among those at work. “The walk allows students to call attention to the issue, and to the value of Naloxone.”
The Naloxone bought with the money raised will be donated to the Wilkes-Barre Fire Department, which Greco noted is often “the first responders to administer the drug,” which can quickly reverse deadly effects of an overdose like slowed breathing.
Learning about Naloxone applied both with intramuscular injection or an atomizer (as the fire department uses) is part of the training at the Nesbitt School of Pharmacy, she added, along with training in clinical, pain management and substance abuse pharmacy work.
The full name of the club is the American Pharmacists Association, and the Wilkes chapter met before the walk around campus began. Students in the walk or just passing by were welcome to buy a hot dog, some baked goods or a T-shirt. The event ran from 11 a.m. to about 12:30 p.m.