Greg Tatro remembers it feeling like “torture” watching his daughter struggle with opioid addiction. For six years, she was in and out of more than two dozen treatment centers across the country.
“It’s like being on the worst roller coaster you could ever imagine, because when things are good, you’re up here and then all of a sudden, you crash to the bottom,” he said.
Thoughts of her safety and whereabouts were always on the minds of the Tatro family.
“It never leaves you, and at nighttime when the phone rings – you’re right on it,” he said. “It could be your friend calling just to talk but until you hear that voice, you’re like, ‘oh my God.’”
On Feb. 15, Jenna Tatro died of an overdose at the family home in Johnson. She was 26.
Photo By Alexandre Silberman
Now her parents are working to fight opioid addiction in the area in their daughter’s memory. Greg and Dawn Tatro have started Jenna’s Promise, a nonprofit organization which is establishing a community-based recovery center to fight addiction.
The family is turning the former St. John the Apostle Church into a community space. The building is where the Tatros were married, Jenna was baptized and her service was held.
The plan is to turn the main floor into a space for events for people in treatment, music, speakers, fundraisers and meetings. The bottom floor will be turned into a recovery center operated by the North Central Vermont Recovery Center. The goal is to begin holding events in the former church – now known as Jenna’s House – in November.
The Tatros also hope to purchase other buildings in the community to create recovery housing. They are closing on a building on East Main Street, where they hope to operate a cafe to reintegrate people in recovery into the workforce and have housing or office space upstairs. …Read More At VTDigger
