20 March 2023
SALINA, Kan. (KSNW) – Houses in Salina are going green and not for recycling. Porches are “lighting up” awareness about Narcan in hopes of saving lives.
If you see a porch shining a green light in Salina, you have found a house joining the fight against fentanyl.
A green porch light means there is Narcan inside and someone who can administer it. Recently, residents out at the Oxford Houses in Salina began this awareness campaign, and now the campaign is spreading to personal homes as the need increases.
Preston Cressler, a volunteer at an Oxford House, says recent overdoses could’ve been prevented, and the green lights are a way to be proactive.
He says when people come to the Oxford House and do drug tests, most people don’t even know they have fentanyl in their system.
“There’s a lot of people that don’t know that they are using fentanyl, and then they use fentanyl and the next thing you know, they’re on life support in the hospital and their families sitting around them wondering what happened and like it doesn’t have to be that way,” said Cressler.
Elizabeth Garcia has lost “at least a dozen” of those close to her due to overdoses. That’s why she is making her home a safe space with Narcan on hand – marking her house with a green porch light.
“Letting them know that somebody cares and that somebody is out there that they can go to when they need help,” said Garcia.
“A lot of times they’re scared to contact law enforcement or to reach out to law enforcement when they are overdosing, so the idea is that they can look for a house with a green porch light on, and if somebody is overdosing they can come to that house,” said Cressler.
Cressler has been working to get more people the green lights after seeing such an increase in the need.
“At the end of the day, that’s somebody’s mother, or that’s somebody’s father or somebody’s child, and you know they matter,” said Cressler.
Cressler and Garcia say something as simple as a light could save a life and give someone what they were given.
“I really want to give people a chance. I’ve gotten a chance to be a mother, a grandmother, a friend again, and I want to give that chance to someone else,” said Garcia.
“We were facing addictions ourselves, and we’ve learned a different way to live, and we want other people to have the same opportunity we did,” said Cressler.
Garcia and Cressler say they hope more people will start joining in, getting green porch lights and getting trained on how to use Narcan.
If you would like to learn more about Naran training and where you can get the lights, click here to join a Facebook group called “The Lantern”
There is also another meaning for green lights, support for veterans. You can usually spot the around Veteran’s Day, but some people use the lights year-round.