PORT ANGELES — It began earlier this month with a simple post on the Revitalize Port Angeles Facebook page: Let’s attack our city’s drug problem, “head on, together,” wrote Gail Gates, a local resident and co-owner of Arcadia Farm and Inn south of town.
Days later, a meeting was set and a name chosen: The Port Angeles Citizens Action Network, PA CAN, held its first forum June 11 in The Landing mall conference room.
Some 35 people came to sit in a wide circle of chairs: city and county officials, teachers, counselors, business owners, recovering addicts.
The use of narcotics has worsened in recent years all over the North Olympic Peninsula and especially in Clallam County, law enforcement officials have said.
Clallam’s 13 opiate-related deaths in 2013 was the highest per capita rate in the state, according to Dr. Tom Locke, then public health officer for both Jefferson and Clallam counties.
Angie Gooding, facilitator of the PA CAN meeting, is a Stevens Middle School teacher who sees her students and their families struggling with drug abuse.
She thanked those who attended that first, long meeting and urged them to return.
The next meeting of PA CAN is set for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 9, again in the conference room upstairs at The Landing mall, 115 E. Railroad Ave.
In the meantime, PA CAN has established its own page on Facebook, and it’s a busy one.
Gates provides guidelines atop it: This Revitalize Port Angeles subgroup is a place for “all concerned community members to share ideas,” she writes, “and develop action plans aimed at the elimination of drug and alcohol abuse in our town.”
Recent posts range from Gooding’s report that the “Natural Helpers” peer mentorship program will return to Stevens Middle next year to a notice of a July garage sale to be held by The Answer for Youth (TAFY), a drop-in center for homeless and at-risk young people.
The organization is accepting donations for the sale and looking for new volunteers, Gates wrote.
Martin Shaughnessy, a volunteer with TAFY, spoke at length during the June 11 forum, urging the rest of the group to pay attention to — and treat with respect — young people who seem lost.
On the Facebook page, he added that the youths who manage TAFY’s fundraisers are all in one stage or another of recovery. And they do all of the legwork, he said.
As for the first PA CAN meeting, Shaughessy wrote: “Listen, just thanks for doing this. I think it was a great start. Shout out to Angie for moderating.
“P.S.: I’ll try not to talk so much next time.”
“It was great to have you there,” Gooding responded.
“It’s going to take a village, and it looks like we’ll get one together. We might not completely solve the issue, but we can make things a heck of a lot better.”
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
