The Record, January 31, 2017
ALLENDALE – Growing up, Brianna Bulkley never felt comfortable in her own skin. By 14, she had turned to heroin to numb the pain of being sexually abused. She overdosed five times in 13 years before detoxing for what she said was the last time in September, and entering Spring House, a women’s halfway home in Paramus.
Patty Trava’s daughter, Caitlin Reiter, was plagued by severe insecurities that led her down a path of addiction, the depths from which not rehab nor her family could pull her from. She died of a heroin overdose at age 21 on Feb. 2, 2014.
Trava and Bulkley shared their stories with Northern Highlands Regional High School students on Tuesday as part of the H.A.P.P.Y. Week program, created by junior Stephanie Reifman. The acronym stands for Heroin Addiction Prevents People’s Years.
Reifman was inspired to create the program in 2013, after one of her favorite actors, Cory Monteith of “Glee” fame, died of a heroin overdose.
Devastated, Reifman said she began to research heroin. Article after article came up, citing instances of heroin abuse in Bergen County.
“It really shocked me,” Reifman said. “It made it more real and I understood it wasn’t just a celebrity’s issue, it was something going on in my own backyard.”
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