HAMILTON TWP., Ohio — The Pike family, like many others in the Tri-State, have been touched by the opioid epidemic, which caused a spike in overdoses during 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Donna and David Pike's son, Ryan Zachary Pike, died from an overdose last year after COVID-19 forced in-person recovery meetings to shut down, robbing Ryan of his support network. Now, they want to turn a home and the 13 acres it sits on into the kind of haven that could have helped save their son.
The Pikes said Ryan loved the outdoors and being in nature, so they decided to use a farm-like setting for a new inpatient recovery program, named St. Zachary's Haven in his honor.
"It's something that we want to be able to provide this safe haven for people like that," said Joshua Pike, Ryan's older brother and the chairman and president of the board for St. Zachary's Haven. "That they can work through this, fight through this and the community can come together."
"We're just really excited about this because I feel like this is going to make a huge difference in the community," said Donna.
The center will have traditional treatment programs alongside activities like woodworking, gardening and animal care guided by a faith-based approach. The Pikes said they hope to help other people find the long-term recovery that Ryan couldn't.
"It's just very heartwarming that we have been given this opportunity to help people in need," said David.
The goal of the center is to offer long-term inpatient treatment free of charge.
"So that no one has to go through the pain," said Donna. "If we can help people, their families don't have to go through the pain we've been through."
The family's next steps to making St. Zachary's Haven a reality will be renovations to the house and fixing up the property, but the Pikes said they hope to open the farm next summer.
St. Zachary's Haven is looking for volunteers and donations to help them as they prepare to open the facility.
