Moms Group Creates Billboard Campaign To Raise Awareness Of Fentanyl Dangers

YORK CO., S.C. – A group of local moms is working to save lives by raising awareness about the dangers of fentanyl.

They’ve started a billboard campaign showing the faces of their sons and daughters who accidently died taking the powerful drug.

“Bam did everything with humor. He was a really silly kid. He was fun-loving. He trusted everybody,” says York Co. resident Jenna James.

James is a member of a group she never wanted to join — moms who’ve lost a child to fentanyl pensioning.

Her 21-year-old son Branden, known as Bam, died a year and a half ago, after accidently taking the powerful drug.

“He told me he thought he had an issue taking Percocet, and he moved home, and five days later he was dead. And so, it was fentanyl, it wasn’t Percocet at all,” James explains.

A year ago, she connected on Facebook with a group of local moms with similar stories.

Now they’re working together to raise awareness, launching a billboard campaign featuring the faces of the children they lost.

“We’re really hoping that people realize it can happen to anybody,” James says.

The group raised money for a billboard that went up in York on Tuesday.

Other companies have donated similar billboards that will go up across the area.

James says there isn’t enough awareness of how serious the problem is.

“We’re finding it in tablets, it’s being mixed with cocaine, heroin, a lot of the times kids they’re getting it from a friend, so it’s safe and nothing’s safe right now,” James says.

She and the other moms hope the personal aspect of the billboards can make a difference.

“The seven faces that are up there right now are all from York County, so these are people that they could have known personally, or run into, or it could be anybody they know, and that’s the impact that we’re hoping it makes,” she says.

Click here for more resources on fentanyl awareness.