Poland mom’s benefit walk to fight for drug addiction services

YOUNGSTOWN -- Donna McAuley of Poland wants people to learn from the experiences she and her daughter Amanda have had with "being different."

Donna and Amanda learned differently than other kids. But where Donna grew up being treated the same as others, Amanda was treated with medication, Donna said.

"I had the same learning skills as Amanda, but the difference was I wasn't medicated. I had to figure it out," Donna said during a short talk Thursday at the Mahoning County commissioners meeting. She was promoting a Sept. 30 walk-a-thon Donna is organizing in Poland to honor and learn from people like Amanda -- who died from drug overdose five months ago at age 27.

"Amanda never got to figure it out. She was always medicated, whether it was prescription drugs or self medicating with" marijuana, Donna said.

"We have to stop making our kids feel like they all need to be the same, learn the same, act the same. God created us different for a reason. It wasn't to zombie out our kids on medication and call them drug addicts," she said.

After graduating from high school in Poland, Amanda, then 18, moved to Los Angeles and began a career in modeling and acting in early 2020. She experienced anxiety, like anyone would, but people she met were using Xanax to cope. "It was laced with fentanyl, and it just took over her," Donna said.

Donna said she thinks anxiety is such a big part of society that it leads to dependency. "Everybody has pressure. We're all running around," she said. "And I didn't even realize they are giving everybody medication for anxiety."

Donna told the commissioners that she would like for kids who have anxiety to do what she did when she was young -- not "take a pill -- take a walk."

She said she thinks the generation Amanda grew up in is the generation "of the easy fix."

Donna put up 10 billboards in Mahoning and Trumbull counties to start to spread her message, using the money that was donated to Donna after Amanda died. Some still are up.

Amanda stayed in Los Angeles about 18 months. She won the National American Miss Ohio Teen Top Model Contest and was later crowned NAM Teen Top Model.

Her obituary said the 2014 Poland Seminary High graduate died "from street-laced fentanyl" and that "this passionate-about-life, beautiful girl could not break away from the hold drugs had on her, no matter how hard she tried."

Donna said Amanda was "so carefree and so easygoing and so fun-loving and a sweet girl who was never mean to anybody, but she couldn't figure out the stress of everybody. So it kind of gave her anxiety about, 'why is everything so go-go-go.'"

Donna's nonprofit organization is called A.M.WakeUp Call. It includes a sister who is an accountant, niece who is in marketing and niece who does graphic design.

She wants to build a school program with the funds raised at the walk-a-thon and raise awareness of stories like Amanda's. The event will have speakers as well as a 5-mile walk through Poland.

More information about the walk is available at www.amwakeupcall.org.

Hispanic Heritage Month kicks off

YOUNGSTOWN -- A flag ceremony and speakers kicked off Hispanic Heritage Month on Thursday in the rotunda of the Mahoning County Courthouse.

A flag ceremony representing the 22 Hispanic countries was first. Later, Mirta Pacheco Arrowsmith was keynote speaker.

Pacheco Arrowsmith was born in Puerto Rico, but her birth father died when she was 3. It left her birth mother with four young children. Her grandfather told her mother to send Mirta to Ohio "to be raised with family. It was supposed to be for a short while so I could get an education," she said during her presentation.

She never returned to live in Puerto Rico, living with another family in Youngstown. She stayed in contact with her family in Puerto Rico through letters, photos and visits.

She graduated from East High School and Youngstown State University. "As a child and young adult, I made it a point to learn to speak and read Spanish. I wanted to be the best I could with the language of my heritage so I could help others like myself in my field," she said.

She was the first in her family to go to college. "That was the opportunity that my birth mother and grandfather gave me in the beginning, and my parents continued the opportunity."

She went to the doctor's office with her father in Ohio to assist him with his language barrier. "That experience inspired me to go into healthcare and to become a registered nurse to help my family and the Hispanic community," she said.

She met her husband at YSU and was married to him in 1983. He is a registered physical therapist.

"We encourage our two children to do well in school and everything they do," she said. Their son graduated from The Ohio State University as a medical doctor with a specialty in psychiatry.

Their daughter has a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree clinical mental health counseling.

She worked 16 years as a school nurse at Campbell City Schools, helping students and educating them with their health needs and their language. She also helped lots of parents with their English.

For the next 10 years, she managed the Community Health Education Hispanic Health program at Mercy Health in Youngstown. She helped the Spanish speaking community to navigate the healthcare system. She was also there to help the Spanish community get access to medical care, social services, health education and prescriptions for those who qualified.

She said the program was "very focused on the immigrant, as I feel we should always be focused in any way to provide them healthcare." She said Spanish organizations and churches have a responsibility "to educate our Hispanic community. How important it is that they learn about their culture, Spanish heritage, their Spanish language."

She said it is important to encourage the minority community. "They are here because of a need and a desire, to achieve all they can."

Schedule

Local events for Hispanic Heritage Month:

• 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, YSU Maag Library lawn, Noche de Cine;

• 3 p.m. Sept. 22, YSU Jones Hall, Lariccia Cultural Collaboratory, international coffee hour;

• Noon Sept. 23, Wean Park, 229 W. Front St., HOLA Fest Youngstown;

• 3 p.m. Sept. 26 at YSU Kilcawley Center, Rossi Seminar Room, a talk by Michael Benitez, vice president of diversity and inclusion and associate professor of multicultural education at Metropolitan State University in Denver;

• 3:30 p.m. Sept. 26 at the main branch of the Youngstown Public Library, 305 Wick Ave., learn how to make maracas;

• 3 p.m. Oct. 1 in downtown Youngstown, the annual nonviolence parade and rally;

• 5:30 p.m. Oct. 3 at the Youngstown Historical Center for Labor and Industry, 151 W. Wood St., a panel discussion on health care, especially disparities experienced by Hispanic people;

• Noon Oct. 8 at the OCCHA Social Hall, 3660 Shirley Road, International Latino Food Festival;

• 7:30 p.m. Oct. 14 at Edward W. Powers Auditorium, 260 W. Federal St., Latin Fire, conductor Francisco Noya;

• Noon Oct. 14, YSU Kilcawley Center, Chestnut Room, Hispanic Heritage Celebration;

• 5 p.m. Nov. 1 at YSU Kilcawley Center, The Cove, Dia De Muertos celebration;

• 6 p.m. Nov. 3, Mr. Anthony's Banquet Center, 7440 South Ave., OCCHA annual gala fundraiser;

• 5:30 p.m. Nov. 18, OCCHA Social Hall, 3660 Shirley Road, veterans appreciation dinner.