Press Articles 2008
December 17, 2008
Schools introduce new drug prevention effort based on ‘Sunny’s Story’
A new drug prevention curriculum for schools, which is based on “Sunny’s Story,” a book written by Norwalk resident Ginger Katz, is being introduced in Bridgeport.
The book encourages young people to be drug-free by telling the story of how a dog’s best friend was needlessly lost.
October 31, 2008
By Rick Green
The Hartfort Courant
Teen Drug Use: A Deadly Conspiracy Of Silence
A dozen years go by and Ginger Katz keeps repeating her unbearable story. All over Connecticut, she tells parents, students and anyone else who will listen about finding her 20-year-old son dead in his bed one morning in 1996. The boy with a bright smile and a dog named Sunny overdosed early on a September day. Ian was an addict, a young man who discovered heroin at the University of Hartford.
October 29, 2008
By VANESSA DE LA TORRE
The Hartford Courant
West Hartford Students Urged To Avoid Drugs, Alcohol
WEST HARTFORD — A mother who lost her 20-year-old son to heroin addiction asked Hall High School students on Tuesday not to inflict the same pain on their families. “Part of addiction is hiding and deceiving,” Ginger Katz said. Her son, Ian, tried cocaine as a freshman at the University of Hartford, then went to snorting heroin five times a day in his sophomore year, while still managing to make honors.
August 20, 2008
By Joan Gaylord
Hour Staff Writer
“FOUNDATION SEEKS TOP CURB TEEN DRUG USE”
The Courage to Speak Foundation will conduct a facilitator training program beginning the first week in October. The foundation seeks to curb teen drug use by empowering parents to develop lines of communication with their teenagers. Currently, 22 trained facilitators in four states including Connecticut, conduct the foundation’s signature course, Courageous Parenting 101.
May 1, 2008
The Cheshire Herald
By John Rook
Herald Staff
Grieving Mother Shares Her Heartache With Cheshire Parents
On the morning of September 10, 1996, Ginger Katz woke to begin her day. It was a bright, sunny Tuesday morning in Norwalk, and Katz, a runner for the majority of her life, went downstairs to get ready.
April 15, 2008
The CT Post
By Linda Lambeck
Mother recalls son’s losing drug battle – LINDA CONNER LAMBECK
BRIDGEPORT – Fifth- and sixth-graders listened intently in the basement library of Garfield School as Virginia “Ginger” Katz talked about her son Ian’s death from a heroin overdose…
March 29, 2008
The Advocate
By Lisa Chamoff
Staff Writer
Group gets federal grant to spread ‘Sunny’s Story’
NORWALK – The Courage to Speak Foundation started out with a simple mission – to spread the word about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse. The small organization, founded in 1996 by Norwalk resident Ginger Katz and her husband, Larry, after their 20-year-old son, Ian, died of a heroin overdose, is growing, and recently received its largest grant yet – $446,500 from the U.S. Department of Justice.
March 28, 2008
By Jill Bodach
Foundation gets big bucks to speak out
The Courage to Speak Foundation received a $446,500 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to expand its substance abuse prevention and education programs in Fairfield County schools and other Connecticut communities.
March 28, 2008
The Norwalk Citizen News
By David Hennessey
Students Show Courage Speaking Against Drug Abuse
Local fourth and seventh graders spoke out adamantly against substance abuse Monday night at the fourth annual “Courage to Speak: Empowering Youth to be Drug-Free Family Night” at West Rocks Middle School.
March 25, 2008
The Hour
By Nina Sen
Mother’s loss motivates her to campaign against drug use by young people
Ten years after the death of her son due to a drug overdose, Virginia “Ginger” Katz is still spreading the message against drugs. And she’s seeing the results in student’s attitude towards drugs.
January 31, 2008
Hartford Courant
By Colin Poitras
Group, Lawyers Tackle Teen Drug Abuse
Greg told legislators and advocates Wednesday, his casual use of a dose here and there at school or at parties quickly turned into raids on his friends’ medicine cabinets and an increasing reliance on the numbing effects of his favorite drug of choice, OxyContin, by the time he was 17…
