FAIRLAWN: There are so many photographs.
In collages that cover every inch of large pieces of poster board.
In an album carried close by a grieving mother.
On the cellphones of a group of teenage girls, still struggling with the unexpected loss of their beloved friend.
They show friendships growing through the varying stages of young lives: Bubbly kindergartners smiling the gap-toothed grins of those who have just started losing baby teeth. Preteens with their arms locked around each other. Teammates with their eyes focused on the volleyball court, oblivious to the camera. Young women dressed up for dances, excited for their night out. Smiling, silly selfies.
There are so many photographs.
But in the latest group photo, taken earlier this month at the Panera in Fairlawn, one smiling young girl is missing: Rachel Anne DeMaio, who died of an overdose in October at age 17 after taking cocaine to stay awake to help her study. The drug was laced with carfentanil, a powerful opiate strong enough to sedate an elephant.
The Woodridge High School student left a large group of friends spread across several schools. She went to grade school at St. Hilary School in Fairlawn, Archbishop Hoban High School and then transferred to Woodridge.
Now her worlds are uniting. At least 12 girls from Woodridge, Hoban, Revere, Walsh Jesuit and St. Vincent-St. Mary high schools are coming together in a group called Rachel’s Angels to spread the message of the evils of drugs and to attest to their devastating effects.
They plan to give their personal accounts of how drugs have touched their lives through the loss of their friend after other speakers at anti-drug assemblies organized by schools. One such assembly is in the works at Woodridge. They hope the message is more likely to stick with students if it comes from their peers. They have pencils and bracelets that bear their message. They also plan to get together once a month for training sessions on how to reach out.
“People will be more likely to listen to people their age than their parents,” said Sophie Bisson, 16, of Stow, who goes to St. Vincent-St. Mary. She met Rachel through travel volleyball. “If they did, they wouldn’t be doing it.”
Their message is clear: Drugs equal death.
Girls in the group pledge to be alcohol and drug free, true to themselves and be ready to help others, said Rachel’s mother, Cindy DeMaio of Cuyahoga Falls. They want young people to know there are other ways to have fun besides drinking and doing drugs and that the best prevention is to stay out of their presence entirely.
One way to avoid those temptations is by surrounding oneself with a good group of people, said Megan Hissong, 17, who lives in Bath and goes to Walsh Jesuit. She met Rachel in preschool at Revere when they were 4 years old, and they went through grade school together at St. Hilary.
“If you are with people that make you happy then you shouldn’t need drugs or alcohol to have fun,” Megan said. “This group has been great because it’s been very educational for me. I knew drugs were bad, but I didn’t realize just how strong, and the devastating effects that can be.”
The group also hopes to help find resources for parents who are trying to find recovery options for a teen or loved one.
“The struggle is unbelievable for a family that has someone under the age of 18 to get help,” said Karen Weber, a family friend and assistant principal of Hudson Middle School. “Rachel’s dad [Russ] shared with me when we were meeting together that they were given four pages of resources to call and they were sent home with Rachel after a difficult time. He started going down the list and what he heard was, ‘Do you have insurance? Does your insurance cover rehab? How old is your daughter?’ I want a place that you call and the first thing you hear is, ‘I’m so sorry you are struggling. How can we help you?’ Parents do not know what to do.”
The DeMaios were looking into drawing therapy for Rachel, Cindy DeMaio said, but were sent home until the counselor could figure out what type would be best. She died before her first appointment.
Gathering helps the girls cope. It’s what they did in those first hazy days after Rachel’s death.
“They would call and say, ‘Can I come over?’ ” her mother recalled. “I had so many girls, and then I thought, how in the world can I comfort them? So we just went in her room and we sat in groups … and then I said, ‘Why don’t you pick out a piece of her clothing?’ And a couple of the girls said, ‘That’s my shirt!’ We all got to laughing and I thought, let’s get some therapy going.”
They shared their favorite memories of Rachel. They cried together, they laughed together and they decided they would honor her memory together.
“From there it just kind of formed” with the help of a group of moms who had been friends for years, DeMaio said.
The girls were ready and eager to help.
“It’s something that came natural to them,” said Lisa Zoldesy of Stow, a family friend whose daughter, Anna, wrote the poem Rachel’s Message in Rachel’s memory. “It was family, and they wanted to be part of helping Mrs. DeMaio and Mr. DeMaio.”
The group helps the girls work through their grief and gives parents the chance to check in and see how they are doing.
“It’s an easier way of still talking about it,” said Alaina O’Donnell, 17, of Bath, who goes to Walsh and was best friends with Rachel since fifth grade. “But also planning stuff for other people because everyone else was also grieving about it, too. It was just easier helping other people get through it while also getting through it yourself.”
Rachel was Hailey Vieltorf’s first friend.
“She was always the person you could tell anything to and she would never expect anything in return,” said Hailey, 17, of Copley and a Hoban student. “She always thought of you before herself. We had our St. Hilary group, and if she wasn’t there it was like there was something missing.”
Maggie Weber was at St. Hilary when she found out about Rachel’s death. Maggie, 16, of Copley and a Hoban student, called some of the other girls who had known her from St. Hilary and they went from house to house, spreading the word and picking up friends. Their instinct was to be together.
“And now we’re together still,” Maggie said.
“We worry about how are they dealing with it,” said Karen Weber, Maggie’s mother. “There are days they just go on with life and think about Rachel once or twice and then there are probably nights they feel bad and wonder about what they could have done differently, and what might have been. We worry about their healing process, as parents.”
DeMaio wants to keep the memory of her daughter alive, and she wants to spread her message: Carfentanil kills.
“My daughter passed away from carfentanil toxicity,” she said. “When I saw that on my daughter’s death certificate at the funeral home, I knew I had to do something at that point. … And [the drug epidemic is] only going to get worse.”
She brought her daughter’s death certificate to the recent meeting at Panera as a sobering reminder to parents to be vigilant.
“We knew there were issues,” DeMaio said about Rachel. “It was not a one-time thing. And that’s part of this whole group, to be honest and tell the truth.”
“Carfentanil … ended up in my little apartment in Cuyahoga Falls,” DeMaio said. “That’s pretty scary. … Don’t ever think this won’t happen to you. We never thought it would happen to us. And now that I know the dangers, I want to be able to walk up to anybody in this community and be able to say, ‘Do you know what carfentanil is?’
“… These kids need to know,” she said. “…It takes everybody coming together.”
Monica L. Thomas can be reached at 330-996-3827 or mthomas@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @MLThomasABJ and www.facebook.com/MLThomasABJ.