8-28-2026

Detective Heding stopped by the library last month. No, I wasn’t in trouble, and disappointingly no she wasn’t signing up for a library card.  She was offering the library an O.A.K.: Overdose Aid Kits.

O.A.K.s were created by the Start Healing Now organization under the leadership of Jessica Geschke. Geschke joined the volunteer organization following her brother’s overdose in front of her children. Originally a support group for parents who lost a child to an overdose named Stop Heroin Now, they later changed the focus to provide resources and funding for treatment and supporting sober living. As opioid overdoses continued to spread, they created the O.A.K. Program providing access to free NARCAN or its equivalent throughout Wisconsin.

In 2023 the Clinton Foundation’s Overdose Response Network acquired the program with the intention of expanding it to a national level. They have placed 5,500 O.A.K.s throughout the United States.

The kit includes three boxes of Naloxone, face shields, and fentanyl drug test strips as well as instructions on how to administer them. We are adding three kits that all contain one of each item above provided by Walworth County Health and Human Services for a display on drug addiction late last year. Walworth County H&HS also provided Deterra which is used to deactivate and dispose of drugs and which are currently available in our O.A.K.

Our O.A.K. is one of three in East Troy funded by 2025 graduate Savanna Kawleski. As part of her course work for the AVID program her junior year, Savanna participated in a service learning project with Start Healing Now which led to them donating two O.A.K.s to East Troy and asking her to serve on the board of directors. She later fundraised the $450 needed to purchase two more through Community Nights at the East Troy Culvers.

The original kits were installed at the East Troy High School and Police Department. There is also one unrelated to Savanna’s volunteer work at the Intergenerational Community Center. We now have one. That leaves one more looking for a good home. We were selected as we are a public space and near additional public gathering spaces. Savanna is looking for another space that is interested in housing one and that would also be easily accessible to the public. Should any organization be interested, please reach out to the East Troy Police Department or ETLPL and we can provide an introduction to Savanna.