“His story is rising again”: Local mom turns grief into her late son’s legacy

SPOKANE, Wash. — A local mom who lost her son to a fentanyl overdose is channeling her grief into a purpose.

Kitara Johnson-Jones’ son, Gabriel Fensler, died of a fentanyl overdose in March, just a day after his 24th birthday.

“I don’t want any other mother, father or sibling to go through what I’m going through right now knowing that I’ll never see my son again,” she said.

One day while grieving, Johnson-Jones went through some old emails Gabriel had sent her.

“In August of last year, he sent me an email. He said, ‘Please go through this. It’s called the ‘CommUNITY Care Collaborative.” It’s a whole plan of sixty or so pages of how the community comes together collaboratively to make sure nobody drops through the cracks,” she said.

Out of that plan, ‘Gabriel’s Challenge‘ was born.

“It’s the only thing that I have, because he didn’t have children. [He died] a day after he turned 24-year-old, but I have his plan, and that is his legacy,” Johnson-Jones said.

Gabriel’s Challenge launches this Sunday, Mother’s Day, at 6 p.m. at the Spokane Pavilion. It will run through Father’s Day, Sunday, June 15.

It is a movement calling on the community to rise up against fentanyl.

One of the biggest elements calls for people to put down their phones and engage with each other in person.

The plan also includes weekly community meetings at City Hall aimed at addressing the drug crisis.

Johnson-Jones also encourages people to adopt a block and care for a specific area and check in on the people living there.

Momentum for the challenge is already growing, with many in the community already joining.

“I am hoping to build some trust between community members, but we’re also trying to level the field of education,” said Spokane City Council President, Betsy Wilkerson.

The Spokane Business Association is also involved.

“It’s moving away from the things that divide us and looking towards things that bring us together,” said Gavin Cooley, director of strategic initiatives at SBA. “So the grief of a mother losing a son, that’s something that brings us all together.”

The community building is what Johnson-Jones said Gabriel would have wanted.

“I realize Gabe is like a seed,” she said. “He died; we buried him. But, his story is rising again, and it’s bringing much fruit in our community to come together,” she said.

For more information on Gabriel’s Challenge, visit www.grabrielschallenge.org.

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