moving out of the dark
Story by Susan O'Connor, Photos by Dero Sanford

Jonesboro has been in the dark about drug abuse, Out of the Dark founder Skip Mooney Jr. believes. His efforts to combat the problem are proof that one man can make a difference. Through his vision, the dark shadow is beginning to lift.

“I did this out of emotion, more than anything else, initially,” he said, his bright blue eyes serious and sincere.

Though drug abuse has touched Mooney over the years through friends and family, as well as during his 26-year practice of law, the impetus for his passion was reading a front-page article in The Jonesboro Sun in July of last year that reported the hospitalization of several young people due to heroin overdoses. Mooney was outraged.

“I thought, ‘I can’t believe there is heroin in this town — that people are overdosing and it’s in the paper. I can’t believe people aren’t talking about it.’”
Along with his daughter, Jordan, Mooney was inspired to pen a lengthy editorial. He said he was surprised to hear from editor Roy Ockert Jr. “He said it had touched several people in the newsroom … asked if they could run it as a special editorial. We were so excited. It was really a call out into the community to see what kind of response we’d get. The response was overwhelming.”

Mooney took hundreds of calls and had people waiting outside his office to talk with him. One call in particular stands out in his mind. It was from a grandparent raising a grandson.

“He said something like, ‘Skip, I need your help. I don’t know if you know it, but we’ve been raising our grandson. He’s gotten in trouble with pills and we don’t know what to do. We don’t even understand the problem.’ That call was an eye-opener. Grandparents don’t understand — they weren’t faced with that. They aren’t always computer savvy. And many grandparents are raising their grandchildren.”

Mooney felt that enough interest had been generated to organize a community meeting, which he set for July 31, 2008. Family and friends warned him not to be disappointed if the crowd was small.

“I thought, ‘If we can get people together and have some debate, maybe we can come up with some answers,’” he said. “I think there are a lot of people in our community who care and don’t know what to do.”

More than 200 people showed up at that first public forum, and more than 80 signed up for committees.

“At that point I knew we had to have an organization,” Mooney said. “We incorporated as a non-profit in September.”

In addition to providing information to parents and grandparents about signs of drug abuse and available resources in the event a family member needs help, Out of the Dark’s website has a “need help” icon where addicts and family members can request more personal assistance. Those interested in volunteering can learn how to help. The web address is: www.outofthedark.org.

The website also displays some shocking statistics, such as: “according to a 2007 statewide survey involving 79,598 students in 570 schools, Craighead county is above the state average in lifetime use by 12th graders of alcohol, hallucinogens, cocaine, inhalants, sedatives, stimulants and ecstasy, and above the state average in lifetime use by sixth graders in the use of cocaine, sedatives, methamphetamines and heroin.”

Because of this pressing need, a huge part of the work of Out of the Dark will be the education of Craighead County’s children.

“This is a new beginning, so we’re starting at the beginning and that is educating our kids,” Mooney said.

Eight county schools now have Out of the Dark chapters, including Westside, Bay, Buffalo Island Central, Brookland, Jonesboro, Nettleton, Success Academy and Arkansas State University. There are subgroups also represented, such as Annie Camp Junior High, Bay Elementary and Brookland Middle School.

Retired Jonesboro High School teacher Jean Strauser is head of the group’s education committee, and according to Mooney, an invaluable asset to the organization.

Strauser noted that her committee chose to model the school chapters after a program in Dover, N.H., which has been in existence since 1992.

“Our task is to empower, inspire and teach our students to use skills, to find and implement solutions to the smoking, alcohol and drug problems,” Strauser said. “They will do this by learning real world skills, such as media skills, presentation skills, legislative skills, how to design radio and TV ads and how to write a press release or write letters to the editors, etc. As they learn these skills, they will use them to go into their schools and out into their communities to increase drug awareness. We also will provide fun, drug-free activities for all chapters in the county with the hopes that by promoting this large, high profile, anti-drug peer group that non-drug use will be more visible, thus undermining the perception that everyone is taking drugs.”

On April 9, Out of the Dark held a special event at the ASU Convocation Center to celebrate the accomplishments of the grassroots movement, as well as to honor individual contributions. More than 400 attended.

“A community of people coming together to openly celebrate a new beginning of change and to let their young people and their sponsors know that they want to support them and their new school chapters,” Mooney said. “Hope was in the air and the entire night was a very positive experience. I am so proud of all the people that have stood with me to say it is time for a change and to begin to actually do something about it.”

As for the future, Mooney said he hopes to have school chapters in every school in the state. Officials in several surrounding counties have already expressed interest.

“We’re trying to build a model in Craighead County so we can take it to every county that wants to be involved,” he said. “If we can get enough people involved, we can make changes. There is power in numbers.”