The Prevention Prodigy: Celebrating Prevention Impact Scholarship Recipient
In a small and rural Wisconsin town where addiction is taboo and often swept under the rug, a passionate young women decided to use her voice. At just 18 years old Savanna turned her personal pain into purpose.
“You don’t ban fire extinguishers to prevent fires. You install them because emergencies happen, and life is worth saving.” This is Prevention Impact Scholarship winner Savanna Kawleski’s favorite way to explain the importance of overdose prevention.
Savanna, now a freshman at UW-Eau Claire, became the unexpected voice of overdose prevention in rural East Troy, Wisconsin long before she ever stepped foot on a college campus. While most high schoolers learned to parallel park, Savanna was fighting stigma across her community.
Savanna’s prevention story started at home. Dealing with family substance abuse, Savanna turned her pain into purpose. While volunteering at a local senior living facility working on crafts, Savanna had a lightbulb realization: she loved giving back.
“I wasn’t even good at crafts” she laughed, “but I loved connecting with people.” She didn’t know at it at the time, but it was that turning point that her passion grew into advocacy.
When the opportunity came to launch a service project in high school, Savanna, reflecting on the tribulations her family has gone through, knew exactly where she was going to focus: saving lives from overdose.
Savanna diligently worked to get O.A.K. boxes, overdose aid kits containing Narcan and fentanyl test strips installed at East Troy High School. Speaking with school administrators, policy-makers, and many skeptical peers, she persisted. She caught the attention of the entire community along with Milwaukee News Outlets.
Savanna fought through a jungle of red tape for nearly a year before realizing her vision and getting the O.A.K boxes installed.
For Savanna, every difficult conversation and hurdle was worth it. But hearing from those who lost someone to overdose made it all worth it. News outlets reached out with curiosity and support. They didn’t come with questions, only gratitude.
“I think helping people gives me something to wake up for” she shared. “I’ve seen what happens when people don’t feel seen or heard, especially when it comes to mental health and substance use. I don’t want anyone to feel alone like that.”
Her impact didn’t end with the O.A.K. boxes. Savanna led a school wide assembly sharing her personal story with a presentation from Love Logan, a nonprofit that educated youth about the dangers of fentanyl. She shared the raw truth of her journey, what she witnessed, what she survived and what she hoped to change.
“I’m not here because I’m perfect. I’m here because I care. And because I know what it feels like to think no one else does,” Said Savanna.
Savanna now majors in social work and continues to advocate for families to talk openly with their kids about substance abuse, rather than pretending it doesn’t exist.
At Rx Destroyer, we believe fire extinguishers prevent fires from burning down buildings. And that you need people, heroes, like Savanna to get those prevention methods in the door. There’s something incredibly admirable about people who take their pain and turn it into purpose. People who love their communities so much that they push through red tape, social stigmas and countless fire-ringed hoops.
This scholarship is a commitment to the future that Savanna is fighting for; a world where we prevent the deaths of countless brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters.
