Fullerton Mother Creates Fentanyl Awareness Christmas Tree

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 300 people died every day last year of drug overdoses, and of those nearly one third involved fentanyl. 

Now one Orange County mother is using her Christmas tree to draw attention to this epidemic.

Andree Scanlon carries a mother’s unconditional love for her son. A son who died nine months ago from fentanyl poisoning. 

Stephen Chaplin was 32 years old, living in Oregon. He was that guy who made others laugh. He was a musician, a welder, and a father of two.

“I had talked to him the night before. I knew he relapsed and he said mom no everything’s fine I’m going to be ok,” Scanlon said. 

After he died there was anger, there were questions and then moments of guilt. 

In many ways Chaplin’s story is like so many others. His mother says after he left  the navy he became addicted to pain medication, an addiction that lasted on and off for years. 

With Christmas on the horizon, Scanlon thought long and hard about her pain and how best to channel it. 

“I cry everyday. I don't have a-minute that I don't think of my son and I know other parents dealing with this feel the same way,” Scanlon said. 

So, she put her christmas tree outside on the front lawn. She made ornaments from wood chips to remember her son and others lost to drugs.

Then, she invited people grieving the same loss to adorn the tree. Strangers started showing up.

The Fullerton woman says she no longer feels alone as more and more people come together, bonding for a very difficult reason. 

“It needs to be talked about, we have to do something he would still be here were it not for fentanyl, but he’s not,” Scanlon said. 

So she hopes that message resonates with others in the silence of a Christmas tree.