EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE: Heart of Wilmington

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — EDITORS NOTE: A few weeks after we featured Anna Goddard as our Extraordinary Person of the Week for her work with Heart of Wilmington, she was arrested and charged with embezzlement. Her first court appearance in New Hanover County Court was scheduled for August 14. 

Wilmington is considered a ground zero of sorts for drug abuse. Local and state leaders call it a crisis.our Extraordinary Person of the Week knows all about the problem. She herself suffered from addiction. She actually died, once. What she is doing with her second chance makes her our Extraordinary Person of the Week.

Anna Goddard knows first hand how destructive the opioid crisis is in the area.  She lived it. “I was a drug addict,” Anna told Daniel Seamans. “I overdosed and was legally dead for two minutes.”

Now she is part of a movement that started with a Facebook post. “We set up a family dinner on the 2nd floor of Buzz’s Roost. More than 100 people showed up,” Anna said.

Anna is part of Heart of Wilmington….or HOW, for short. It’s an NON-PROFIT organization just getting started but already bringing in a lot of attention involving the opioid crisis.

“We wanted to involve everybody,” Anna said, “a community platform had never been created, there had never been a platform where people can offer their personal time and skills.”

One of the goals is to help already existing programs and create more personalized treatment options.  “We’ve been visiting halfway houses, looking at different resources, treatment facilities, and basically, what we’re doing is compiling all the available resources into one website and we’ll develop it into an app. That will take some time,” she said.

And in the nick of time, Anna Goddard, a woman who was dead for two minutes now helping bring the community together like never before.

“I’ve already noticed since we started this that the conversation has changed in Wilmington.”

That makes you, Anna, and everyone who is part of the conversation, Extraordinary.

There is a comedy show fundraiser, Friday June 30, to raise money for ‘HOW’.  It is at Morning Glory Coffeehouse, 1415 Dawson Street.
The show will feature Comics Dick Satori, Lew Morgante, Billy Raim & Mike Van Vliet with the lighter side of recovery.
$10 Suggested donation.

For more information on HOW you can be a part of the conversation, click here for HOW’s Facebook page and here for their website.