TRUCE

A lot of people don't really know too much about where I'm from. I grew up in Scottsburg, Indiana, a rural community in southern Indiana. It's a pretty average pass through town located right off I-65, theres a town square and not really much going on when it comes to entertainment. The one movie theater the town had shut down around 2002. Later in my teens Scott Co. really began to develop quite a serious methamphetamine and opiate problem. The rising drug problem in the town was a huge factor in my decision to move to Louisville, it seemed like all of my friends were becoming consumed with using. There were times when even I had used. I'll be the first to admit my experimentation with controlled substances. I felt the power and capability that drugs had to really ruin my life, and I didn't want any part of that, so I headed down the road a bit.

As I was living in Louisville and trying to carve my own path many of my friends and family had moved from recreational drug use to full blown intravenous addiction. Some died, some ended up doing time in prison, very few have managed to escape that lifestyle. A few nights ago I was reading an article reporting 42 new cases of HIV in the last two months alone in Scott Co. This shocked me, I thought about how many people may have contracted HIV that weren't even aware of it. I went to sleep that night with it weighing heavy on my heart, the weight was so heavy that I woke up the next morning and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I had to do something, I had to at least try. So with the help of some of my friends back home, some who are even recovered addicts, we are taking the initiative to increase awareness in my hometown and provide support where we can. We launched our Facebook page yesterday, we are just getting started. If you support this cause feel free to head over and join the conversation. This is an initiative that we think could benefit many communities around the world might as well start with our own.