By Crystal McGough, Editor
TRUSSVILLE – Newly established nonprofit “Huskies Together” held a meet-and-greet event at the Trussville Civic Center on Monday, Nov. 6, where members of the community were invited to learn about the program and its plans to help students and parents address concerns such as drugs, alcohol, bullying and suicide.
Left to right: Lisa Bright, Sen. Shay Shelnutt, Rep. Danny Garrett (Credit: Crystal McGough)
Huskies Together was born out of the inaugural Leadership Trussville class, which met from 2022-2023 and had 27 graduates in May 2023. City Councilor Lisa Bright was one of those graduates and part of the team that chose Huskies Together for their project.
“We are an enrichment, awareness and support group that focuses on our students and our parents that are dealing with drug and alcohol addiction issues, suicide, bullying, all the things that face our teenagers in the schools, middle school and high school especially,” Bright said. “It’s something that I have always wanted to have here in Trussville. Most of you know that we had a son that struggled and would have loved to have had a resource that would have been at our fingertips, to have been able to go to and have the immediate phone numbers and that sort of thing.”
Bright said the plan is for Huskies Together to offer resources for parents and students starting with their website, huskiestogether.org, where the organization has cultivated resources people can have immediate access to.
“Huskies Together has filed for a nonprofit and we are very excited about that,” Bright said. Thank you, Rick Stotser (Massey, Stotser & Nichols law firm), for helping us on that. Our eventual plan will be – once we kick this off and start getting our name out there – to do some programming where we have people come in and they’ll speak on different topics; everything from vaping to how to introduce your child to a cell phone … things that I just think every parent would appreciate having and a student would like to know, as well. That’s our big overall goal. Then eventually, we want to get into having a mentor meeting program, as well. So, that’s what we plan on doing in the very near future.”
Bright recognized several noteworthy people including Rep. Danny Garrett and Sen. Shay Shelnutt, Mayor Buddy Choat and the Trussville City Council, Trussville City Schools and Superintendent Dr. Patrick Martin, Police Chief Eric Rush, and Huskies Together President Adam Trammell.
Additionally, Dr. Martin recognized Board of Education member Sherrye Tolbert, TCS Chief Financial Officer Jim Kirkland and Assistant Superintendent of Student Support Services Dr. Rachel Poovey for being present and showing their support.
Huskies Together yard signs are available for people to display in their yards. (Credit: Crystal McGough)
“Lisa and her group have done a fantastic job,” Mayor Choat said. “Some of you know and have been through our Leadership Trussville adult class – we have a high school class as well – but to get people together to start talking about things that benefit your city is what it was all about. Trying to help us keep moving our city forward and in the right direction.
“Lisa and her team had to present it to the board of Leadership Trussville. It was a great idea and the board obviously agreed with the project … The funding for this is actually part of the proceeds of nationwide opioid settlements coming across. The city of Trussville, we joined that lawsuit six or seven years ago … so we have received funds from some of the companies that have paid off. That money has to be spent in certain ways and this is one of the ways that we can spend that money, and we’re proud to be able to do so. I think it’s going to be a great program for our community.”
Huskies Together President Adam Trammell shared a video highlighting the dangers of fentanyl, demonstrating that even a minute amount of this odorless, flavorless drug is enough to kill two people.
“It’s a serious issue,” Bright said after the video. “That will definitely be one of the things that we want to address head on because, in the addiction world, across the country, there’s an average of 300 people that die a day. That’s a plane crash a day, and you don’t hear about it enough on the news to make a difference.”
Bright said that Huskies Together plans to start holding programs in early spring, hopefully before spring break. The events will be held at the Trussville Civic Center and will be considered neutral, not tied directly to either the municipality or the school system.
For more information on Huskies Together, visit huskiestogether.org or check out their social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram.
