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You can’t tell from how somebody appears on the outside, but there are  thousands of people going about their lives and circulating in their communities, whose souls are under reconstruction.  Their time on earth was rolling right along until a best friend, a loved one, son or daughter, sister,  or parent or spouse was taken  by the deadly street version of the drug fentanyl.  

Lindstrom resident Michele Hein is one of those people.  

Wounded deeply by the accidental fentanyl poisoning death of her son Tyler  Hein she explains that she is finally coming out of the fog and finding “healing through helping.”  Michele  has found purpose in the one-year-old Fentanyl Free Communities Foundation, she chairs.

The FFC foundation welcomed the public to an inaugural event last week, aiming to introduce a power packed line-up of leaders and share some of the foundation’s goals and towards creating a fentanyl-free Minnesota.  Former Anoka County Attorney Paul Ostrow, Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt and former Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman were guests at the Park Tavern event,  spreading the word about the awareness, advocacy and insights they plan to bring to the fentanyl crisis.

Tyler did not go out to buy a pill that would kill him, Michele explains in a video made to describe the foundation mission. She recalls he was working his recovery from painkiller abuse, and was doing all the right things. Tyler could put his mind to achieve anything he sought to achieve; until that day four years ago when he got ahold of a pill he did not know was 100 percent fentanyl.  

The pill seller was tracked down and prosecuted here. Nolan Michael Hendrickson entered a guilty plea in 2021 and was sentenced in December 2022 and is serving 86 months.  But, Michele sees there’s more to be done.  If there was a plane crash every day, that killed 300 people, the government and society would be outraged and acting to stop the carnage.  This is how many fentanyl-related fatalities there are.  

When facing a problem so overwhelming, the most success can be found close-by, so the fentanyl-free Minnesota mantra was adopted.

Michele said what seems to give her hope is turning her grief into action.  The foundation will “lead the charge” and spread awareness, call for change and educate.  Please see the website if you need help, wish to donate or just want to learn more about who is behind the foundation.

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