Teens join forces in latest efforts to call out drug use, clean up popular beach hangout area

Members of the Northport/East Northport Drug and Alcohol Task Force (NENDATF) 1Life team partnered with high school service club Students for 60,000 (SF60K) this past Monday, June 26, for an environmental scan and beach cleanup that yielded 50 pounds of trash, including drug paraphernalia, just one month after the NENDATF’s last cleanup and scan event.

In the past year, the NENDATF and 1Life have collected over 340 pounds of trash at Crab Meadow.

Joining the high schoolers earlier this week were a group of 19 students representing four high schools in Mingo County, West Virginia: Tolsa, Tug Valley, Belfry and Martin County. The visiting students are chaperoned by members of A.B.L.E Families, a nonprofit dedicated to assisting low-income families in Mingo County as they seek to make positive changes in their lives.

During their stay in Northport and East Northport, the students are hosted in the homes of SF60K families, and participate together in educational and recreational day trips with their fellow high schoolers, volunteers, group leaders and advisors to multiple community organizations. The last time SF60K hosted a group from West Virginia was in the summer of 2019; this is the first time a group has returned since the pandemic, and the first time SF60K has partnered with the high school’s 1Life youth coalition.

“We were so happy to be able to share with them that it doesn’t matter where we come from, what we look like, who we are… we have similar challenges with substance issues,” said Linda Oristano, NENDATF program coordinator.

The students not only picked up trash, but looked for anything drug- and alcohol-related that could be used in research and analysis of a growing drug and alcohol crisis among youth. While West Virginia leads the nation in opioid-related overdose deaths, a fentanyl crisis continues to threaten the country. America is experiencing the worst drug crisis in its history, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, with more than 100,000 Americans dying of preventable overdoses last year; the vast majority of them involved fentanyl, a synthetic opioid. In this most recent environmental scan and clean-up, volunteers focused on the wetlands area adjacent to the parking lot. Accessible by foot past an entryway gazebo, the area is not marked or well-lit, but popular as a local “hangout” for teenagers and young adults.

During their cleanup, the students found multiple bonfire remains and, more concerning, said Oristano, syringes (with needles attached) and small powder drug baggies with decals, an indicator that the bags stored illicit drugs bought on the street. Other paraphernalia used for vaping and marijuana was also found. Anything picked up by the students was weighed and documented.

“Our work goes on,” Oristano told the Journal. The NENDATF, whose mission is to prevent and reduce the use and abuse of drugs and alcohol among young people, is currently in talks with the Second Precinct and the Town of Huntington, and hopes to improve the area by adding trails and lighting and making it appealing for activities that contribute to wellness, such as nature walks, rather than take away from it, she said.

In the meantime, the visiting students from West Virginia remain engaged in the Northport-East Northport community and are enjoying classic New York City sightseeing, along with acts of service. On Wednesday evening, they were scheduled to participate with SF60K in one of 1,000 relief missions hosted by Midnight Run, a volunteer organization that distributes food, clothing, blankets and personal care items to the homeless poor on the streets of New York City.

To learn more about the NENDATF’s local efforts, make a donation, or to become a sponsor for any of its events, visit www.ndatf.org.