Reality Tour back and more vital than ever

August 05, 2023 Last Updated: August 02, 2023 10:50 PM Community

Tara Maziarz, left, Julie Wilczynski and Colton Bittner perform a reenactment of a fatal drug overdose during CANDLE Inc.’s 2016 Reality Tour. Butler Eagle File Photo

In the three years since the Reality Tour took a hiatus for the coronavirus pandemic, more lethal street drugs and easier ways to ingest them are threatening young people in Butler County and across the U.S.

So Norma Norris, executive director at CANDLE Inc. and founder and creator of the Reality Tour, decided it was time to once again give families the tools to avoid the heartbreak of drug abuse by bringing the tour back.

Norris said Butler Area, Mars Area and Seneca Valley school districts have again partnered with the Reality Tour, and she is in talks with Karns City Area and Knoch school districts.

The Reality Tour is publicized at schools in the districts and students age 10 and older and their parents sign up online to take the tour, but any parents can attend with their children.

What to expect

The Reality Tour is a two-hour program where families go through a heart-wrenching fictional addiction story that uses brief acted-out scenes at the arrest, imprisonment, emergency room visit and death of a person suffering from drug addiction.

The brief scenes are narrated by the teen addict who is the subject of the story. Those in attendance stand among the volunteer actors as the scenes play out, not in chairs as an audience.

“People become very emotionally involved in this person’s story,” Norris said. “You’re hoping it will end happily, but it’s all about how choices you make have an impact on your life.”

Norris recalled one father who brought his young son to the tour after soccer practice. The dad clearly had no clue what the Reality Tour was and was instructed by his wife to bring his son, and asked how long it would take, as the two had not had dinner.

When he was told the program lasts two hours, the father did a poor job at hiding his frustration.

“When it was over, he came up to the director and said, ‘These may be the most important two hours I’ll ever spend with my son,’” Norris said.

“This is a program for every parent who wants to do all they can to keep their child safe,” she said.

Norris said in addition to the emotional elements of the story, the scenes also include segments that will elicit laughter among those who attend.

“We constantly surprise you by giving you prevention learning without you knowing it,” Norris said. “It’s not a lecture. It’s interactive.”

Finally, a member of local law enforcement is interviewed regarding the drugs police are currently seeing on the street. An addict in recovery also is interviewed.

“The take-away is (dispelling) the myth that drugs are a rite of passage,” Norris said. “The recovered person really unwraps that, and reduces the stigma for those in recovery.”

Parents leave the event with a “prevention launch” that includes a study of the teenage brain for parents, and a “catching happiness” assignment for students.

The latter teaches the students to discover what brings them joy and how to use it when times are not so good.

She said some people worry that the program is too evocative for a preteen, but Norris said young children today are exposed to situations that were unheard of when their parents were that age.

“It is all appropriate for a 10-year-old with their parent,” Norris said.

People who attend also receive information on the very latest street drugs as well as how youths can look at their lives differently.

“Would you give your winning lottery ticket to a stranger?” Norris said. “If you experiment with drugs, it’s the same as handing over your life.”

Street drug awareness

Norris said she has talked to many parents whose children have fatally overdosed on fentanyl, but they had never heard of the drug until they received the call every parent dreads.

She said fentanyl is in 60% of illicit drugs purchased on the street, and that in 2019, the fentanyl overdose rate almost doubled in one year.

“That’s not in the national headlines,” Norris said.

Norris said the latest lethal drug to hit the streets is xylazine. She said District Attorney Rich Goldinger sent a letter to all school superintendents in the county warning them of the drug’s deadly effects.

“It’s an animal tranquilizer,” she said. “You can vape it.”

Norris said the invention of vaping has opened a Pandora’s box, as many addictive drugs can be vaped and street marijuana that can be vaped is often laced with something stronger and more deadly.

“Anything you buy on the street can be laced with anything,” she said.

Tour gives tools for discussions

Norris said the Reality Tour is the only parent-child prevention program of its kind and provides a safe space for students and their parents to discuss drugs.

For example, Norris said if a middle school student asked their parents about a new drug they heard about at school, the parents might instinctively interrogate the child about it, which would make the discussion uncomfortable and the child unlikely to bring up the subject again.

At the Reality Tour, parents and their children will learn how to calmly and effectively talk about drugs.

“Experimental use could end up in tragedy, so we have to talk about it and the Reality Tour is a safe space to talk about it,” Norris said. “It includes consequences, coping skills and first-person accounts, and all things related to drug abuse in our county.”

Partners believe in Reality Tour

Brian White, superintendent at Butler Area School District, said drug prevention education for students and their families is very important.

“We're happy the Reality Tour is available in our community to share real stories of substance abuse and the devastating impact that even one use can have on families,” White said.

Linda Andreassi, communications director at the Seneca Valley School District, said the district has collaborated with CANDLE Inc. for more than a decade to provide an opportunity for parents to take part in the Reality Tour.

“We’re pleased to hear the tour will return as it has been vital in building greater communications between parents and children on what is traditionally a difficult subject to address,” Andreassi said.

She said school district officials share with school families the resources and information used in the Reality Tour.

“We look forward to continuing our partnership with this local, educational resource that we believe serves as a deterrent in this never-ending battle,” Andreassi said.

‘I’m so glad my daughter and I went’

Marylou Palmer, a staff member at North Main Street Church of God, attended a previous Reality Tour with her daughter to determine if the program would be a good fit for the church.

“This is such a necessary program for our youth and their parents to educate and equip kids before they’re exposed,” Palmer said. “Reality Tour starts that process. I’m so glad my daughter and I went, and I’m excited to be able to help bring this to all the youth in Butler.”

Nurse Hally Callithen holds the hand of the overdose victim’s mother, Jan David, who grieves with her husband, Jeffery David, as the couple learns their son has not survived during a reenactment at the 2010 Reality Tour. Butler Eagle File Photo

Steven Dietz