BERLIN – Ruthie Shofi, a hairdresser of 33 years, has seen children grow before her eyes – from their first haircut in a booster seat to their wedding day, and every occasion in between – and knows the toll drug addiction is taking on the clients she has come to know and love.
“Unfortunately some are in rehab and some have passed away,” she said.
Like many of her customers and their families, she is all too familiar with the ever-growing epidemic plaguing the county.
After abusing Percocet for nine years – to manage the pain from a hand injury she sustained in her profession – and witnessing her daughter fall prey to the hands of heroin addiction, Shofi was done.
“It was truly the hardest thing to stop,” she said. “It took me three years to fully stop taking the medicine. I was totally blindsided by this addiction.”
Although Shofi now lives a drug-free life, the same still can’t be said for her daughter, who has been a heroin addict for the past 11 years.
“My family has been separated on every level from this addiction,” she said.
After her daughter relapsed in 2014, and her mother’s death four days later, Shofi has made it her goal to do something that would help the community face heroin and opiate addiction.
“In my mom’s name and memory, I am very driven to do anything I can to help anybody,” she said.
Her effort began in a notebook, where she used her morning hours to write ideas that would help groups in the area fight the epidemic.
“I never had anything solid, just a lot of hope in wanting to help,” she said.
In the spring of last year, Shofi reached out to Michael DeLeon, founder of the national addiction education and prevention organization Steered Straight, through a Facebook group entitled “The Addict’s Mom.”
DeLeon had used the Facebook page to share with the group his story of addiction and the impact his mother’s death had on him, according to Shofi.
“When I read that part it was just like ‘Oh my God. Someone really understands what I’m going through,’” Shofi said. “I called him immediately and he answered immediately.”
Shortly after reaching out to him, Shofi formed Kids Are Dying Delmarva and brought DeLeon to the Ocean City Convention Center to speak on Memorial Day last year.
After hearing DeLeon’s message and his efforts to prevent drug addiction, Kids Are Dying Delmarva became the Growing Hope groupp.
“When we were given the opportunity to bring him back, way too many children had died in this area and it was a really hard thing to put on paper and put out there with that name,” Shofi said. “It wasn’t our purpose any longer. It’s to truly try and educate and become preventative in a very hopeful, positive way.”
Shofi dubs DeLeon the “home run hitter for the disease” and “the man that gives help to the helpless”, and added that her pursuit to bring the national speaker to the area once again is time well spent.
“If you can save that one person, then this was worth every minute of what I’ve been doing,” she said.
DeLeon will return to the Convention Center Feb. 28 at 6 p.m. for a free and open event entitled “Be a Part of the Solution”. The presentation will conclude with a question and answer session, where individuals can interact with the speaker.
Shofi’s husband, Brian, said those wishing for more information on the seminar, or ways to help, can contact them directly through the Growing Hope Facebook page.
“I think he is going to help everybody work toward being some sort of an asset in this fight and arming them with information they may not have had before,” he said.
Shofi added that she has never seen an epidemic of this proportion in Worcester County, but hopes DeLeon’s speech will get others to pay attention.
“I’ve never seen anything in the world like what we are going through, ever,” she said. “You wonder if it can ever stop, and you can only hope, with enough people trying, it will.”
