Gang and drug prevention organization getting started in the community

Over the past month I have been attending some meetings with a few community members busily organizing a nonprofit that will aim to help improve the health of Lac Courte Oreilles and its surrounding neighbors. There is a serious drug problem here; we've been losing at least one community member a month to drugs by way of overdoses, or the mixing of prescription narcotics with alcohol, or suicide and the problem continues to increase. Some months there are several deaths. And these are young people between the ages of 15 up to 45. Much too young to leave because of something that could have been prevented.

Bugo Ganay Giizhig (Hole in the Sky) was the idea of Justin Gordon over 15 years ago and only now becoming a reality in our community. Justin took a long and burdening path to get to this point where he finally said, "enough already, no more." He, himself, became a drug addict as a teenager and only got himself clean just over a year ago.

A team that includes myself, Justin, Shondel Barber, Angie Wolfe and Curtis DeCora, have been meeting and crafting a plan that involves creating a referral service hotline at 1-844-TELLBUG, which will be active in a few days, as well as a website at TELLBUG.org, which also will be live in a few days. Once the website is up, you'll be able to visit that site and find out all the current activities we have planned in the new few months which include fundraisers but also development of a program that will serve the people most in need, at-risk youth.

I can tell you that we are all very excited about the overall strategy of what we're implementing and can't wait to get everything fully operational and begin serving our community. We feel strongly that we're going to make a positive difference in the lives of many of our people. The energy levels of each one of us is infectious, and it all started with Justin and his ambition to make this happen. I advise anyone that wants to get involved to just let us know, we are looking for volunteers to help plan and coordinate several major events coming up, which include our Sweetheart Supper on Valentine's Day and the Northland's Got Talent competition on April 2 at the Park Theater in Hayward. This event will be a lot of fun and will be set up like the TV show America's Got Talent, with celebrity judges and all. We'll also be looking for volunteers to help us with our services that we'll be offering.

We also currently have a fundraiser going this Thursday at the LCO Tribal Office serving Squeezer's Lemonade and philly cheesesteaks and burgers served with several different flavored toppings which include pepperoni pizza, 3 cheese and chili, bell pepper, provolone and cheez wiz. Some awesome food for an awesome cause, make sure to stop by and get some.

Also, our team members are out selling raffle tickets for a fundraiser drawing that will be held at our food fundraiser on January 7 at the tribal office at 2:00 pm. There's only 100 tickets to be sold at $20 each with one lucky $1000 winner. Stop by Circle of Life Home Health office across from the LCO Country Store and see Shondel Barber if you'd like to get a ticket and support this new cause.

Here is our latest press release about the community meeting that Justin organized last week;

(Hayward) A community meeting was held at the LCO Tribal Office Peter Larson Room on Tuesday, December 8, to introduce a new start-up nonprofit organization aimed at drug and gang prevention in the region.

Bugo Ganay Giizhig (Hole in the Sky), with a slogan of “a brighter path awaits,” was founded by Justin Gordon, and what started out as a dream of his 15 years ago when he was just 13 years old, is now quickly becoming a reality.

Gordon welcomed several community leaders, which included the Sawyer County Sheriff Mark Kelsey and Hayward Police Chief Joel Clapero, members of LCO Family Services, two tribal council members, and representing the Hayward School District was Asst. Principal Doug Stark.

Gordon started out the meeting recognizing his late uncle, Geronimo Wade, as a co-founder of the organization. He said that Geronimo was a major inspiration for him to start Bugo Ganay Giizhig after he had cleaned himself up from drug addiction.

“He encouraged me even when I was having my own problems,” Gordon said.

Gordon told the group that he had first wanted to start a nonprofit to help kids stay off drugs when he, himself was just a young teenager and witnessed first-hand, the effects of it on the LCO community. He started Bugo Ganay Giizhig back then, raised funds, got press coverage and started to assist some kids, but support from the leaders of the community at the time didn’t come and Gordon gave up.

“It wasn’t long after that, I turned to drugs and led a life of abuse, myself.”

Gordon said he has been clean and sober for over a year now and that was why he decided it was time he try to give back by helping people avoid living a life of drugs and gangs which leads to many problems.

Gordon said that he started posting on Facebook about his goals to get the nonprofit started again and received widespread support. He said some questioned his past drug abuse, “And one of the hardest things I had ever done was to come forward and be open about it, and I told my story on Facebook. Many only knew I had some problems with crack, but they didn’t know that I was using meth and heroin. It was bad and I was going nowhere.”

After making posts on Facebook to get support for his goals, he quickly had a team put together of community members who believed in the plan and wanted to help him get it started.

Gordon then explained what services his organization would offer. In the beginning, a hotline will be set up and widely promoted. The hotline will act as a referral service for any person in the community who needs help, such as drug or gang prevention, suicide and domestic abuse and even homelessness in the community, where someone could find assistance. Gordon recognized that there are currently services along these lines that are offered, but not one all-in-one hotline that would have all the different agencies throughout the county listed in one place. The hotline would help direct people to the right place and 24-hours a day.

“This is a service we plan to have up and running just after the first of the year,” Gordon said.

By spring of 2016, he plans to have other parts of the program up and running, which include a teen support program where kids participate in a drug and gang-free program which includes volunteerism, counseling, employment assistance, assistance in achieving a diploma or furthering their education and community service. Kids earn rewards as they are participating in the program such as feasts, awards and some kids who have excelled will even earn trips. The program will also award scholarships.

“With the rewards program, once-a-year, we’ll have community members choose from our kids at least two of them to go on an all-expense paid trip with their families. This will show them the community’s appreciation to their commitment of staying sober,” Gordon said. “Hopefully with the incentives and the community’s involvement, it will encourage more kids to participate in the program.”

Gordon said he came up with these ideas for the plan by going out into the community when he was just 13 and talking with kids. “I just asked them, why do you do this? They always answered that there was just nothing for us to do.”

Gordon said that in addition to these services, the organization would have a program to renovate or build parks, playgrounds and skate parks to create more activities for kids to do. He said that the volunteerism and community service parts of this plan would involve these kids actually doing the work and then following up to maintain the parks. He said that Bugo Ganay Giizhig also plans to organize sporting events and activities in the community. Gordon said he believes that providing more opportunities in sports for our youth will also help them avoid wrong behavior.

Gordon said he also wants to see the Sawyer County Court system utilize his program as an alternative to sending young people to jail when the offenses are less serious. Gordon told the group that he believes a lot of times, sending people to jail only teaches them how to become better criminals rather than rehabilitate them. A program like this may help them to not become repeat offenders, he said.

Gordon said his team has held several meetings already and are in the process of waiting on their articles of incorporation, preparing to file for 501(c)3 status and planning fundraisers, which include crowdfunding, several major events and other projects.

“We have two major events planned for this winter which are a Northland’s Got Talent competition at the Park Theater on April 2, with celebrity judges and everything, just like the show, but our own local version, and we’re having a Sweetheart Supper event on Valentine’s Day at the Flat Creek Eatery. More information will be coming out soon,” Gordon said.

Luann Kolumbus of LCO Indian Child Welfare said that she wanted to pat Justin on the back for starting a program like this because it’s long overdue. She said that there are over 100 kids in the LCO community out of their homes because of drugs.

“Drugs are running rampant in our community and it’s out of control and it has to start somewhere,” Luann said. She offered to help get a motorcycle ride fundraiser going for the group next summer.

Diane Sullivan told Gordon to make sure to heal himself first, then family, then the community, then the world. She told him to keep moving forward with his recovery because people will look at his past. She told him to knock on the doors of corporations and ask them to help.

Shondel Barber, who is part of Justin’s first board of directors, said that she wanted to get involved because, “drugs are killing people in our community, when is it going to stop? Our nonprofit is going to struggle in the beginning but it’s going to be huge and I wanted to be a part of that.”

Angie Wolfe also spoke to the group. She is also part of the board of directors.

“I have struggled to maintain sobriety but I don’t want my daughter to do drugs, or any of my family and my community. I want to be a role model for my daughter and when I saw Justin post it on Facebook, I said I wanted to be a part of that. I figured I could be a voice for other addicts.”

If you have any questions about Bugo Ganay Giizhig you can call Justin at 218-491-0052.