GREELEY, Colo. — After losing their 16-year-old daughter to an accidental fentanyl overdose, a Colorado family is turning that pain into a way to educate families about this deadly drug.
In the bright summer sun, just on the edge of University High's football field in Greeley, Brendan Hogan helps to set up tables and puts out candles and bracelets as they get ready to welcome the community in for the second annual Jaydynn's Light event.
"It's just to bring the community together and shine a light on what's going on," said Brendan Hogan, Jaydynn's father.
He and his wife, Kim Hogan, created the nonprofit as a way to spread awareness and warn families about the dangers of fentanyl after losing Jaydynn Hogan more than two years ago.
"She was the type of kid that lit up the room when she walked in it. She was very bubbly, had a big personality," Brendan said. "She was always goofing around, making everybody laugh, making everybody smile. And she was everything," said Katie Potter, Jaydynn's mother.
Potter said her daughter had been the designated sober driver for her friends that night after graduation parties, helping to make sure everyone got home safe.
"She got everybody home early and she couldn't sleep. So she took half of what she thought was a Percocet or some kind of sleeping pill and she never woke up," Potter said. "It was just, it took the breath out of me," Hogan said.
Fentanyl. A drug Jaydynn had never meant to take ended her life that night. A villain her parents hadn't known existed. "When they told me that it was fentanyl, I had never heard of the word. I didn't know what it was. And they used the word poisoning," Potter said.
“We had not heard about it at all," Brendan said. "At the time, it was COVID, COVID, COVID and then when we found out it was fentanyl. It was one of those things that hit us, like, what is fentanyl?"
Now, they're fighting to make sure another family doesn't lose a child to this deadly drug. It's why the Hogans created Jaydynn's Light, to keep her memory alive while educating and spreading awareness of fentanyl.
"When she doesn’t have a voice, we have to be hers and try to help her friends, our kids, nieces, nephews, anyone in our society that doesn’t know the dangers of fentanyl and their parents don’t know the education on it and how to tell their kids about it, it’s our job now. So we’re trying to get all the awareness out that we can and help save a life,” said Kim Hogan, Jaydynn's step-mother.
Saturday night, Jaydynn's friends and family gathered alongside community members in Greeley to keep Jaydynn's light shining bright and her legacy going strong.
"We're going to honor her as much as we can and raise awareness for anyone else that needs it," Kim said.
And finding comfort in knowing Jaydynn's message and memory is reaching her loved ones here.
"Knowing that she is changing people, that if anything, we saved these kids from that danger," Potter said. "That's the goal, that's the hope," Brendan and Kim said.
For more information about Jaydynn's Light, visit the website.
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