With accessibility to drugs on the increase, overdose is also rising.
It is extremely painful to watch a friend or loved one who has fallen into the grip of drug usage slowly drift away. Unfortunately, Melissa Schoonover has experienced this more times than she cares to recall— one being the loss of her son, Chris Schoonover.
She decided she wanted to do something to help make a difference, so in 2020 she founded Steve’s Wings for Humanity, with the focus on reaching out to help those in addiction. Earlier this year, Steve’s Wings initiated a safe syringe program.
For the past several years, the group has hosted an Overdose Awareness Rally in August, which is designated as Overdose Awareness Month. Previously held in Rockingham, the event on Aug. 16 was moved to Hamlet.
It was a hot day with temperatures in the high 90s. At one point during the rally, a cloud hoovered over the event in the shape of an angel.
There were numerous speakers who testified of their experience and how they overcame addiction. There were also activities for the adults and children, as well as music, food vendors and resources for treatment.
Numerous banners from this year and prior years were hung with photos and names of those who lost their lives to overdose.
There was a special booth set up highlighting the Chris Schoonover Foundation, a branch of Steve’s Wings to help families without insurance pay for the costs of a lost loved one.
This year’s rally attendance was lower than anticipated, with few members of the community showing up in support. Among them were District Attorney Jamie Adams along with her son, Charles Adams and his wife, and Richmond County Commissioner Jamie Gathings. Also in attendance were representatives of Hamlet Fire and Rescue and the Hamlet Police Department, including Interim Chief James Carsto.
“Addiction is never easy for anyone, whether it be the individual with the addiction, the family and friends, or the community of the individual,” said Schoonover. “If we all unite together to come up with a positive solution, we can make a change. It takes a village to raise a child; Richmond County is that village. Our loved ones need that help, so we should all work together to fix the issues at hand.”
Acknowledging the problem, the Richmond County Board of Commissioners recently approved funding for a drug treatment court in hopes to minimize the growing problem. Schoonover also said she will be running for county commissioner in the next election.
Veteran David Riggins tells his story of addiction and recovery.
Charles Adams
The first speaker for the event was veteran David Riggins, who joined the military after 9-11.
What began as a good intention didn’t end that way.
While in training, a safety harness malfunctioned which sent Riggins on a major fall, causing the ACL and MCL in both knees to be seriously damaged. His military career ended with an honorable medical discharge.
Riggins spent 14 months in physical therapy as well as taking prescription opiates to help with the pain, opening the door to addiction. Prescription opiates continued for seven years, then escalated with more “affordable” potent street drugs.
In a few years, Riggins had lost everything and became homeless. In December 2022, while passed out from drugs for numerous hours, a kerosene heater had fallen on his left leg where 85% of his leg obtained third-degree burns.
“When I came to, I was in a dark room and had the worst pain I’ve ever had in my entire life in my lower left leg,” Riggins recalled. “I cried out to my buddy in the next room, and he told me I had been burned. I was taken to the burn unit in Chapel Hill where I spent 56 days and had six surgeries.”
Due to the severity of the burns, Riggins’ leg had to be amputated below the knee, but later complications resulted in amputation above the knee. At this point, he had been opioid-free for five months and was determined to stay that way.
“It was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Riggins said.
He signed a waiver for them not to use narcotics during the surgery, but after surgery his blood pressure sky-rocketed due to the pain, and they had to administer a small amount of pain medicine while in the hospital.
When finally discharged, he left without any pain medication. Even though he didn’t sleep for two weeks because of the pain, his mind was made up to never use again.
Riggins used the worst time of his life and turned it around for his good as well as the good for others. He uses the van he now lives in to travel, attending rallies throughout the year where he speaks to encourage others and give them hope.
“If I can go and possibly lift one person up, it is all worthwhile. I started a group on social media called H E A L — Help, Empathize, Accept, Love; if there is one message I can give ya’ll, it’s that God loves you.”
Assistant Attorney General Herman Little recounts the Biblical story of the Good Samaritan.
Charles Adams
The next speaker was Assistant Attorney General Herman Little Jr., who cited the Biblical story of the Good Samaritan.
In the tale, two prominent people passed by a man in need without stopping to help, but the Good Samaritan stopped and helped the injured man. Little said that we should have the mindset of the Good Samaritan in regards to addiction.
“They need us to help, not just pass them by,” Little said. “It only takes a small amount of fentanyl needed for a person to die. My Father tells me that faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains. Rest assured if you battle with anything, keep that faith. The community is behind you, and we will do anything we can to eradicate this problem.”
Jamie Talluto traveled from Athens, Georgia to tell her story, also hoping to help others.
Talluto has had numerous friends and loved ones who have died from overdose — the most recent one being last week.
“I am in long-term recovery and have a family member on one of these banners,” Talluto said. “These events are so important; we need a whole community. I’ve always said, ‘There’s no community without unity.’”
Talluto, originally from New England, said her father was associated with the mob and the family moved a lot, with her attending a dozen schools by the eighth grade.
Jamie Talluto gives her testimony.
Charles Adams
“I saw a lot of things as a young girl that young children shouldn’t see,” she said. “Because we moved around so much, I could never build relationships with people in order to build trust to talk to anyone about what was going on.”
Talluto said her high school years were all at the same place and she was able to make friends.
“I found this group of friends that were so accepting of me; they loved me, we laughed, and we had fun,” Talluto said. “They were drug dealers, and for me —growing up with the things that I saw — it felt familiar. It really didn’t seem so off-balanced to me.”
Talluto said she tried “every single drug” and her drug of choice became “more.”
“I never knew anything about recovery; no one was speaking out about recovery,” she said. “That’s why today I make it my mission to speak out about recovery so other people won’t have to die silently.”
Talluto remained addicted while going to college and working two jobs, eventually spiraling into a very dark place — lying, manipulating, cheating, stealing, and trading herself for drugs.
“I knew these things were wrong, but it was the only way I could survive and not be sick. It put me in survival mode,” she said. “There was a doctor that would trade ladies for subscriptions. I would go and bring my friends. I was probably 33 when I first injected, and it was soon after that I found out I was pregnant while addicted to opiates.”
“I couldn’t understand how I wanted to stop using so bad and be a good mom but couldn’t stop using,” she said. “I didn’t understand how these pain pills were so addictive, and if you stop taking them you will be so sick. I didn’t understand how the chemicals worked in the brain.”
Talluto said her daughter was taken from her and her mother was granted custody.
She had started going to treatment, but without any encouragement, Talluto said she fell away and into a trafficking situation — from which she was rescued when she was arrested on an outstanding warrant.
Spending 20 days in jail, Talluto said, relieved her from the lifestyle she was living, and gave her time to reflect — she didn’t want to live the way she was living any more.
“I ended up going into a sober living which took me away from people, places and things,” Talluto said. “The women there told me they were going to love me until I learned to love myself.”
She began going to meetings and after 87 days sober, she spoke encouragement to others that were in the same situation she was when she first got there.
“The light in their eyes was magical to me,” Talluto said. “There was a purpose in my pain, a message in my mess. It put me on fire, and I got super involved.”
Talluto began speaking and started a social media platform with more than 280,000 followers. She said she couldn’t have done it without a judge who held her accountable, or a supportive community.
After three and a half years in the sober-living community, Talluto became a certified peer specialist for addictive disease with the Georgia Council for Recovery and started a faith-based massage therapy business.
Talluto implemented a massage therapy protocol into an organization called the Divas Who Win Freedom Center in Athens, Georgia, helping women come out of addiction, human trafficking and prostitution and into recovery.
“I was able to rebuild my life while still being held accountable by my community,” Talluto said. “Every place that the devil had taken me, my recovery has taken that and put it for the good. … I was able to give back so much.”
Talluto said she was excited to hear about Richmond County’s future drug court: “It is life-saving.”
Richard Schoonover thanks the small crowd for coming to the annual Overdose Awareness Rally.
Charles Adams
The next speaker was Richard Schoonover, Melissa’s husband, who has been in recovery for more than two years. Pointing to the banner with his son’s photo, he said, “I fight it every day; that boy right there makes me fight. I live for him and me now.”
He also said that without his wife, “I wouldn’t be here.”
According to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, Richmond County had the highest suspected overdose death rate in the state in 2024 — 99.2 per 100,000. The state average is 29.7.
The county has also had the highest fentanyl-involved death rate for the majority of the past two years.
Statistics from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner show there have been 297 confirmed overdose deaths in the state this year, with more suspected.
“The community really needs to come together because without community, we can’t make this happen … somebody’s got to fight for these people,” Richard Schoonover said. “This ain’t going to leave, you can’t brush it under the rug or hide from it.”
Richard Schoonover also advocated for the Marchman Act, a Florida law which “provides for voluntary admissions and involuntary assessment, stabilization, and treatment of adults and youth who are severely impaired due to substance abuse.”
North Carolina does allow for involuntary commitment related to substance abuse.
“The drugs that are out there today aren’t like drugs used to be,” Richard Schoonover said. “The stuff out there today is making people walk blind; they don’t even know what they are doing and spreading diseases that can’t be cured.”
A shofar sounded just before Scott Mannheimer took the stage to give his testimony as the final speaker of the evening.
Scott Mannheimer tells of how he overcame addiction and was led by God to what he's doing now.
Charles Adams
Mannheimer, a New York native, said he started using drugs while living in Staten Island and tried killing himself 12 times.
“I hung out with the wrong crew and started collecting money for the mob,” Mannheimer recalled. “I lost two-three million dollars in sports gambling, started doing steroids while working out a lot. I had to get neck surgery and went to multiple doctors. I came to a point where I had to give up my scripts or I was going to die.”
Mannheimer said he became drug-free while in Mexico and moved to Pennsylvania to live with his parents, but said the slower pace was “a little depressing.”
“I asked ,‘What am I doing here, Lord?’” Mannheimer recalled. “I started doing Uber and got lost in Kensington where my whole journey started. I heard God tell me, ‘I need you here.’
“I pulled out a gun because I didn’t know where that was coming from because I never heard the voice of God, ever,” he continued. “I heard it three more times and I said, ‘Lord, if this is you, I’m going to serve you for the rest of my life.’
“From that day, I started going to Kensington three to four times a week, and God was moving. People were getting set free.”
Seven years later, Mannheimer said God told him to go to Plant City, Florida, where he is now a remote recovery coach.
“This is the word I got for you guys when I was praying about it, ‘Honor their memory.’ I heard it over and over again,” Mannheimer said. “To everyone who has lost a loved one, whether to sickness, addiction, or accident, your grief is real, your loss is deep, and your journey is difficult.
“Even in the valley of the shadow of death, God’s word promises us hope, comfort and strength to keep moving forward,” he continued. “Remember their legacy. Your loved one’s memory is a precious gift, a flame that continues to burn in your heart. The story does not end in the pain of a loss, it lives on in the love you shed.”
Mannheimer’s speech ended with a prayer session, which was followed by a candlelight vigil as a video played showing photos and a brief description of some of those in Richmond County who were lost — at least one, indirectly — to overdose.
At the end of the event, several attendees thanked Melissa Schoonover for keeping their loved ones’ memories alive, to which she said it was her “unfortunate honor.”
Melissa Schoonover thanks all who helped in any way, as well as thanking the following sponsors: Jamie Gathings; John Hutchinson; Rico with Sandhills Knockerball; Compatible Computers; Family Pharmacy; and Brent Conner Home Improvements.
“Without any of them, it would not have been possible for the rally to happen.”
Steve’s Wings is hosting the second annual Walk for Sobriety, planned for noon-4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20 at the same location. Cost to participate in the walk is $10 for general admission and $5 for those in recovery.
For more information or to volunteer, contact Schoonover at 910-417-8740 or via Steve’s Wings for Humanity on Facebook.
Photos above story by Betty Gallo McIntyre. Additional photos from William R. Toler are available on the RO's Facebook page. Toler contributed to this story.
