Glowing Souls Festival Helping Las Vegas Youth Experiencing Addiction

The There Is No Hero In Heroin Foundation (TINHIH) is dedicated to ending the devastation that substance abuse causes families. Joe Engle, founder of the organization, knows this devastation all too well. He lost his own teenage son to a heroin overdose. After that, Engle wanted to help other parents who experienced the same kind of loss that he did.

Since its inception in 2013, TINHIH has helped thousands of local kids in Las Vegas struggling with addiction. The nonprofit organization is an advocate for sustainable recovery programs and brings these resources to the local, state and federal levels. They have many programs available to help these young adults. Including outpatient treatment programs and prevention services.

TINHIH also offers training for harm reduction and overdose prevention. And they are the home to the highly successful Alternative Peer Group (APG), a drop-in center for teens and youth to participate in sober activities. The APG works closely with Mission High School Las Vegas. Which TINHIH is a partner in. Most recently, TINHIH has also opened a sober living facility for adults as well.

According to the Nevada Opioid Needs Assessment and Statewide Plan of 2022, the Nevada overdose death rate has increased by 55 percent between 2022 and 2023. Many families in our community are being affected by this heartbreaking epidemic. To honor those lost, TINHIH is hosting their Glowing Souls Festival. The festival will be on Saturday, Sept. 30 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Sunset Park. Located at 2601 East Sunset Rd.

The festival will include food, live music and spiritual exercise and gong bath. It will come to a close at sunset with the release of water lanterns to honor those affected by addiction. Tickets are available for purchase here. The $25 ticket cost includes a water lantern to release as well as a plate of food. Additional lanterns are available for purchase at $5 each. Raffle tickets will also be sold for a chance to win art, a pair of Broncos vs. Raiders tickets and various gift baskets. For information, visit https://tinhihlasvegas.info/, call 702-445-7318 or email info@tinhihlasvegas.info.

- Wendy Rush, 96.3 KKLZ

"FRIENDS" is one of my favorite shows. I can't turn it off if I run across it, or it's just my default if nothing else is on.

was probably one of the most popular sitcoms of all time. Ross, Monica, Rachel, Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe were OUR friends. Matthew Perry says those friends were definitely there for him when he needed them.

Matthew Perry was very candid about his drug use, and how it almost killed him, in his upcoming book "Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing".

In a new interview with "People"  Perry says he almost DIED when his colon burst due to opioid abuse four years ago.  He spent two weeks in a coma, five months in the hospital, and nine months with a colostomy bag.

He says, quote, "The doctors told my family that I had a 2 percent chance to live.  I was put on a thing called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and your lungs. And that's called a Hail Mary.  No one survives that."

At one point during his "Friends" days, Matthew was taking 55 Vicodin a day, and was down to 128 pounds.  He says Season 9 of  "Friends" was the only year he was sober all the way through.

But he credits his cast members for sticking with him - like penguins.  He said, quote, "Penguins, in nature, when one is sick, or when one is very injured, the other penguins surround it and prop it up.  They walk around it until that penguin can walk on its own.  That's kind of what the cast did for me."

Perry has been to rehab 15 times over the years, and while he won't reveal how long he's been sober currently, he says he's, quote, "a pretty healthy guy right now." And that's why he finally wrote his book.

Quote, "I wanted to share when I was safe from going into the dark side of everything again. "I had to wait until I was pretty safely sober . . . and away from the active disease of alcoholism and addiction . . . to write it all down.  And the main thing was, I was pretty certain that it would help people."

"Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing" will be released November 1st.

Here are some of my favorite FRIENDS videos

https://963kklz.com/2019/08/28/mike-carla-interview-phil-solem-of-the-rembrandts/

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