SHEBOYGAN, Wis. – A local BP convenience store owner is frustrated with the drug problem in his community, and he’s doing something about it.
The Sheboygan Press writes that Dick Hiers is tired of seeing his customers die from drug overdoses and is bringing awareness to the problem. “I’ve lost more than 30 customers to overdoses,” Hiers told the news source. “The last one that affected me more than anything was Dakota. 19-years-old with a two-year-old child. She came in here, her parents came in here, her sister comes here. That one affected me the most and I decided something needed to be done to bring some awareness to it.”
At his Northeast Standard BP station, Hiers has posted signs that are hard to miss. The first says “Heroin is killing people—help wanted” and “Wake up! Your kids are dying—heroin." While the signs grab attention, Hiers told the news source that he’s disappointed by the community's lack of response.
“The signs have traveled the United States and maybe outside the country, but from the community itself, there has been very little response,” Hiers said. “A lot of people thought it was cute and took pictures of it, but no one was knocking on my door to find out why.”
Hiers isn’t giving up hope, having posted about a dozen different signs that draw attention to drug addiction and heroin use in the community. “I am hoping that this will be a building block and it will expand and get bigger and bigger,” he told the news source. “So people, if they see drug deals going down or lose a neighbor to heroin, that they bug the police department and get some response.”
The c-store owner is now working with two faith-based addiction support groups, Samaritan's Hand and the Christian Intervention Program. To help raise awareness, Samaritan's Hand is holding a "Prayer at the Pump" at 6:00 pm on June 29.
"I want Hiers to know that we care. I want people to know that Samaritan’s Hand cares," Julie Conard, program administrator at Samaritan’s Hand, told the news source. "While prayer might be laughed at by some people, we see positive results of people finding our faith here and finding healing. We know that prayer is quite something and want to stand with a business owner who is willing to stand up.”
Conard noted that the prayer will focus on healing the community and raising addiction awareness. "Healing the community is really where it's coming from. Hopefully other people who maybe don't understand what addiction is [will] open up their hearts and minds to realize it is a hard thing to overcome," she said. "It's not easy and [it] wrecks lives. It hurts business owners, people get robbed, and a lot of things happen due to drugs and alcohol."