Thank you Chrystal

I remember when we spoke one day over 2 years ago maybe you don't remember me. That is okay! So many mother's with tears. I remember when my daughter attended your sons funeral and how sad she was, then just few month's later my daughter had to attend her brother's funeral.

I am sorry for your loss. I am grateful for all you have done to speak out about this horrific tragedy.

Gone to soon, they are all gone to soon!

Scroll down to read the rest of the story!

Visit Nick's website
Staring up at the new billboard she had installed on Milwaukee Avenue in Wheeling, Chrystal Beinlich starts to cry.

"If this doesn't get their attention, I don't know what will," the Lincolnshire mother says, as she wipes a tear off her cheek and a friend wraps an arm around her shoulder. "If we have to be in people's faces, we will."

The billboard, which went up Monday, urges parents to talk to their children about heroin and offers free drug-testing kits at nickbeinlich.com. It's Beinlich's latest effort to educate parents about heroin's growing presence in the suburbs, which has been her mission since her 18-year-old son, Nick, died of an overdose in 2007.

Getting parents' attention has been difficult and frustrating, she said, because of a prevalent not-my-kid mindset.

Parents took every precaution to protect their children from H1N1 swine flu, which killed 76 people statewide this year. Yet, heroin killed more than 100 people in the suburbs alone in 2009 and Beinlich said it seems as if hardly anyone blinked. Drug educational forums put on by several suburban high schools and police departments drew only a few dozen people each.

"There's blood running in the streets, but no one's paying attention. They just walk over it like it's a puddle," said Lea Minalga, a Geneva mom whose son is a recovering heroin addict. She now runs Hearts of Hope, a group that helps families deal with drug addiction. "I (tell parents), 'Do you understand that unless you're prepared, this could happen to you?' They think it can't happen to them, so they tune out."

The Rest of the Story!

Tribune Article Part II "The unrelenting power of Heroin

My son did not know! I did not know.

Do your children know how powerful Herion is an how available it is in your own backyard?
This is a sad situation, get yourself involved in your community, make a difference this coming new year!


"This is how powerful heroin is."Street Drugs A Drug Identification Guide

In September 2007, 18-year-old Nick Beinlich overdosed on it in the Buffalo Grove home of his Stevenson High School classmate Matt McGovern and never regained consciousness, dying five days later.

Four months later, River Forest police found McGovern in a shopping center parking lot, slumped over the steering wheel of his car with a needle dangling from his arm.

Just think about that. A friend essentially died in his house, and that didn't stop McGovern from using. It wasn't enough to scare him straight, wasn't enough to shame him straight, wasn't enough to force him to face his addiction.

A friend essentially died in his house, and yet, McGovern went back to heroin. Just think about that.

But the power of heroin didn't stop there.

In September 2008, another Stevenson friend of McGovern's, 18-year-old Phil Capone of Vernon Hills almost died of an overdose, saved only because his mother found him unconscious in time to summon medical help.

Then in April this year, another Stevenson friend, 19-year-old Eddie Sivkov of Buffalo Grove, died on the floor of his bathroom a few months after completing a two-week rehab program.

And two months after that, Lincolnshire police arrested McGovern and charged him with possession of heroin after an auto accident. The 20-year-old driver of the car in which McGovern was riding also was allegedly high on heroin.

Two months after a second friend had died. Less than a year after a third friend almost died. And if the police account is correct, McGovern was still on heroin.

If you're clean, you ask yourself, how could that be? Two high school friends die. Another almost dies. You're arrested once. With all of that happening, who in his right mind would still be using? How could that be?

The answer, unfortunately, is simple. Someone with a heroin addiction isn't in his right mind.

As Jamie Sotonoff's reports sharply described last week, we're facing an epidemic of heroin abuse in the suburbs and in our schools. And it's leaving death and shattered lives in its wake.

Much more needs to be done to combat it. More attention and more funding is needed to try to get addicts off it.

But as McGovern's story clearly illustrates, the most effective way to get off heroin is to never get on it in the first place.

That's a message our community and our schools and parents need to underscore ~ read the article

U Tube Pink Glove Fundraiser - Med Line Money Million Mark Mammograms

I thought I would share this a friend of my mine posted this on one of the forums I frequent ~

This is the note she posted.

"Our daughter-in-law, created, directed and choreographed this in Portland last week for her Med-line glove division as a fundraiser for breast cancer awareness. This was all her idea to help promote their new pink gloves. I don't know how she got so many employees, doctors and patients to participate, but it started to really catch on and they all had a lot of fun doing it.

When the video gets 1 million hits, Med-line will be making a huge contribution to the hospital, as well as offering free mammograms for the community. Please check it out. It's an easy and great way to donate to a wonderful cause, and who hasn't been touched by breast cancer?"

Enjoy your Thanksgiving Holiday!


Pink Glove Dance

If it makes me happy!

Waking up is happy & difficult to do, especially when you realize it will be almost two years since that horrific day that changed my life forever. I continue on this crazy ride of emotions from feeling very sad to very happy. (Not working in over 5 years doesn't make it easy either!)
No ~ I am not depressed, no I am still not crazy yet, and no I am not going through the change. Maybe just a tad slow to realize certain pieces of this puzzle.

WHO KNOWS! What the next year will bring.
Let me tell you what is is like for me, getting a double whammy smack me upside the head girlfriend slow down duh moment.

RESULTS ~
Whammy number #1
Thursday evening of this week the Bead Society of Greater Chicago had their annual election. Mind you I knew I was on the slate as I was nominated. I have been their Vice President of Programming for a year now. I had a lovely afternoon looking for a new facility to house our meetings with the current President. Actually, I had a lovely afternoon circling O'Hare airport while she scoped the new place.  I shall admit one of my minor flaws is giving the gas companies more money; I got lost again. I tell ya, I just have no sense of East, West, North, South.

Whammy #2
Back in June of this year I decided to join in on the juried collaboration project together with
Michigan Glass Beadmakers Guild to create a piece with a Jewelry Designer I had never met, as I am a member of Glass Act another organization that is non-profit in MI.

Ladies and Gentlemen the votes have been counted and the results are in.

Whammy #2
The piece that was entered in the jury show took 3rd place YAY!
Whammy #1
What will the future bring!

Sheryl Crow seemed to sum up my feelings best ~

"I've been long, a long way from here
Put on a poncho, played for mosquito's,
And drank til I was thirsty again
We went searching through thrift store jungles
Found Geronimos rifle, Marilyn's shampoo
And Benny Goodman's corset and pen

Well, o.k. I made this up
I promised you I'd never give up

[Chorus]
If it makes you happy
It can't be that bad
If it makes you happy
Then why the hell are you so sad?"

Sad, not really ~ just a little dumb struck.

The Bead Society of Greater Chicago ~
Join, have fun, meet new peeps, share your stories!

Whether it be a grief group, beading group, reading group, on line forum ~ any group!
It's thearpy for me - That's what makes me happy today!

This is going to be a lot of work as a volunteer position, but down the road this will be good for me, having a job ~ keeping me busy. This is what I can do for me. To make my days go by with more happiness, I think!

PS: if you are in the local area, - join volunteer, let's make some history for the love of beads!

Edited: Update on positition of my presidency position of the Bead Society of Greater Chicago - I resigned before the new year.

The why does not matter if it makes me happy it can't be that bad; in life you have to take care of you.