finally tonight putting a face to addiction the black poster project began four years ago as one mother's powerful and moving way to honor the life of her son who battled with and lost his life to addiction it's a striking exhibit of portraits that travels throughout the state bringing awareness to the lives taken by the disease as Melissa Rose Cooper reports the project started with 50 posters and sadly continues to grow now containing close to 700 portraits when I tell a story I always make mention that he never in high school never took any classes for his SATs never studied you know he was out partying the night before he walked in as they were closing the door with no calculator no pencils and he got too wrong on the math portion so he was really smart one of the many characteristics that always brings a smile to Dorothy gillen's face whenever she thinks of her son Scott he passed away in 2015 after battling a drug addiction he was in and out of rehab a number of times and the last one he was in Florida he was clean for a year he was we went down we were with him when he got his celebration chip for one year and we kind of looked at each other my husband and I were like well he did this he did what he wanted to do he made it to that Milestone and then we weren't sure what would happen and sure enough he relapsed but in the process of trying to heal Gillen used her pain to create what's now known as the black poster project we travel around New York and New Jersey areas and we set up hundreds of posters like you see behind me we just try to raise awareness for drug addiction and overdose deaths after launching in 2019 the project started with just 50 posters now there are nearly 700 on display showing the many faces and stories of people around the country who've lost their lives struggling with addiction every poster every child every loved one has a story and I was looking at these faces and and it was really moving and incredible and helpful to me to be there glennis Burke lost her son Patrick in 2019 and found out about the black poster project while looking for ways to cope but seeing his face along with others being remembered was so powerful Burke decided she wanted to be a part of it too I look at the smile and I am doing what he was unable to complete and before he passed you know that was one of the things that he said to me you know I want to go into the school's mom and I want to sit down with these kids and tell them like Scared Straight What It's Like and so I feel that we as a collective are doing that for our beloveds you know it puts purpose to the pain in some fashion the folks that have approached me and and have come to the project I directly have come as a result of hearing about it you know some of them it's too much but by and large they're like this is so different this is amazing thank you and so that's a small bit of Solace people have a tendency to think that people taking drugs or dying from drugs or overdose or fentanyl that they deserve it that you know they made a choice but these people didn't want to die they made a mistake they made an error some just couldn't control where they were going like my son I just really think it's important that people see these faces and you know take a look at them because they are where they should have been not at the end of their life struggling with a powder or needle each poster in the project is made at no cost to the families Dylan and Burke say their goal is to continue educating people on addiction crisis but bring more healing to grieving loved ones all while keeping the memories of those lost alive for NJ Spotlight news I'm Melissa Rose Cooper Melissa Rose Cooper