In The News: Stories, Enlightenment & Inspiration

Parents to build recovery center in daughter’s name

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Everybody has a story.  Jenna Tatro’s started out like many others.

“She just was a great girl,” said her mother, Dawn Tatro.

“It’s definitely a story that we hear all the time,” said her father, Greg Tatro.

“Jenna loved horses. We both loved horses. So we would show together and she just got on and she was fearless,” said Dawn.

Jenna’s fearlessness and free spirit were overshadowed by addiction, after she became hooked on prescription painkillers six years ago.

“She used to tell me, ‘Dad, I don’t want to be a drug addict. That’s not what my life was meant to be,'” said Greg.

“There are gangs around here that deal drugs, and they took her in and they gave her all she wanted,” said Dawn.

All Jenna wanted was to get clean.

In February 2019, she was 55 days sober.

“She made contact with one of her former drug traffickers and four days later she was dead,” said Dawn.

On Feb. 15, fentanyl killed Jenna.

But her story isn’t over.

“She is here with us in spirit. She’s kind of driving us. She’s pushing us, and we feel like she is with us,” said Greg.

What was once St. John’s Catholic Church in Johnson could soon be a place of hope once again.

“Greg and I were married there and Jenna was baptized there, made her first (Holy) Communion there,” said Dawn.

If the Tatros’ offer to buy the building is accepted, it will be called Jenna’s Promise and will be a place where people struggling with substance abuse disorder can come for support and encouragement.

“That was our plan. ‘We’re going to make a difference, Mom,’ Jenna said. ‘ We’re going to make a difference,'” said Dawn.

Her parents are going to keep that plan alive in Jenna’s name.

Anyone interested in making a donation can write a check to Jenna’s Memorial Fund, P.O. Box 339, Jeffersonville, Vermont 05464.

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