By Kevin Hendricks and Julian Paras, The Paper.
Rio Rancho families who’ve lost someone to fentanyl got a chance to walk, grieve and organize together Saturday, as the second annual Walk for Lives came to Haynes Community Center and Park.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s El Paso Field Division and the Rio Rancho chapter of United Against Fentanyl hosted the free event at Haynes Park. Walkers then headed down the path along 528 before looping back to the pavilion, part of a coordinated day of roughly 200 similar walks happening in cities and small towns across the country.
Rio Rancho mom Kelly Opp organizes the local walk in memory of her son, William Austin Burnett, who died of fentanyl poisoning in 2021 just weeks before his 26th birthday. She held the inaugural walk last year in Bernalillo — the town where she grew up — and said it drew friends, family and strangers who’d lost their own children.
“I was just overwhelmed with the support,” Opp said, recalling how the first walk stretched past a mile in the heat but left participants understanding the mission.
State Sen. Jay Block, who spoke at the event, said Walk For Lives is important because it helps “to remember those beautiful people taken from us because of the poison, fentanyl.”
Block also thanked Opp for her leadership.
“Kelly has dedicated her life to saving lives so no other family has to go through what she went through: The loss of her amazing son, Austin,” Block said.
This year’s registration list looked different, Opp said — fewer names she recognizes from her own circle, more from families she’s never met. She called that both heartbreaking and encouraging: proof the community is stepping up.
DEA Administrator Terrance C. Cole framed the national effort as a response to what he called the deadliest drug threat the country has faced, saying awareness events like Opp’s demonstrate that prevention is everyone’s job. Acting Special Agent in Charge Mark Putnam, who oversees the DEA’s New Mexico operations, said families who’ve lost loved ones have turned their pain into activism the agency is proud to stand behind.
Opp said the agency has been a steady presence for her personally, including through family liaisons and national summits where the DEA asks grieving parents what they need. She said DEA staff will run a resource table at Saturday’s walk alongside recovery, prevention and grief-counseling providers.
BY THE NUMBERS
- 200+ Walk for Lives events nationwide on July 11
- 1 mile approximate length of the walk
- 9 U.S. high school students who die weekly, on average, from a drug-related death, per the DEA
- 1 million+ American parents who have lost a child to a drug-related death, per the DEA
- To get involved: Register to walk, volunteer, become a vendor, host a resource table or donate supplies at walkforlives.org
- Prevention resources: dea.gov/fentanylfree