KAMLOOPS THIS WEEK TUESDAY
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MAY 3, 2016 | Volume 29 No. 53
HAVING A BLAST IN ONTARIO AND QUEBEC
WE ALL SCREAM TODAY’S WEATHER
Sunny and warm High 28 C Low 13 C
Scoopz is back where it started all those years ago
Council trio continues its tour of mining towns
A3
B6
Kamloops all alone in grim overdose data TWO MORE DEATHS ON WEEKEND BRING YEARLY TALLY TO AT LEAST 13
TIM PETRUK
STAFF REPORTER
tim@kamloopsthisweek.com
DAVE EAGLES/KTW Emily Harlock has raised more than $1,000 for the Donovan family by selling a special mix of bath salts she calls Super Sam. She wants to raise a whole lot more in the next little while. You can help by placing an order via her Facebook page — Emily’s Broom Closet.
SALES FOR SUPER SAM’S FAMILY
DALE BASS
STAFF REPORTER
dale@kamloopsthisweek.com
Emily Harlock likes to make bath salts and other items with essential oils. She’s taking that homegrown talent and using it to help a family that has taken the same journey as hers. Emily is selling a special mix of bath salts she calls Super Sam, with all money raised going to the family of Samantha Donovan, a six-year-old Westsyde girl who died on April 21 after a two-year battle with cancer.
Emily, a student at Westsyde secondary, knows what the Donovan family has been living with and what they face in the coming months and years. Her brother, Mitch, died of cancer on April 12, 2015. Emily never got a chance to meet Samantha, but when she learned the little girl’s condition had become terminal, she wanted to do something to help out. By mid-April, Emily had raised more than $1,000 for the Donovan family. She expects to add to that total this coming week and at the Saturday, May 7,
Westsyde secondary craft fair. The Grade 12 student mixed lavender, eucalyptus and orange essences with epsom salts, a combination she said is designed for use by children. The first jar she made went to Samantha. Emily has also been making perfumes and sugar scrubs for sale, all under the name Emily’s Broom Closet. Anyone interested in buying Super Sam salts — or any of Emily’s products — can contact her through her Facebook page (search Emily’s Broom Closet) or by texting her at 250-319-9791.
Following two more overdose deaths on the weekend, Kamloops Mounties are working on a messaging campaign to inform drug users and dealers of the dangers of fentanyl. It likely won’t be known for weeks whether fentanyl was involved in Kamloops’ most recent overdose deaths — a 44-year-old man and a 36-yearold woman found dead at a house in Rayleigh on Friday night — but the drug has prompted warnings from police, coroners and community groups in recent months. The weekend deaths bring to at least 13 the number of fatal overdoses in Kamloops so far this year — nearly double the tally for all of 2015. Kamloops saw seven deaths last year from overdoses of illicit drugs, which is on par with the annual average of 7.2 for the city going back to 2007. In 2016, however, the numbers are spiking — especially in the Tournament Capital. According to BC Coroners Service data, Kamloops is the only city in the province to have recorded more overdose deaths in the first three months of 2016 than in all of 2015. The only cities with more recorded overdose deaths than Kamloops so far this year are Vancouver, Surrey and Victoria. Kamloops RCMP Cpl. Jodi Shelkie said the risk to drug users is real. See OVERDOSE DEATHS, A4
EK!
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UNTIL APRIL 30, 2016
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