Tracy and Rachel are honored to sit down with Emmy Award-winning journalist and devoted mother Angela Kennecke for a deeply moving conversation about her beautiful daughter Emily and the extraordinary light she brought to the world. A radiant light with the tender heart and sensitive spirit of an artist, Emily embraced and celebrated each day, until her life was tragically cut short by fentanyl poisoning. Motivated by her unending love for her daughter, Angela founded the Emily’s Hope Foundation, whose mission is to remove the stigma of substance use disorder through awareness, education, and prevention; and removing financial barriers for treatment and recovery. In addition to pledging $100,000 for adolescent treatment scholarships and $250,000 for adult treatment scholarships at the Sioux Falls-based Avera Addiction Care Center (with 150 people having received those scholarships to date), Emily’s Hope is also pioneering an education initiative for a K-12 prevention curriculum that focuses on the whole child and includes lesson plans, literature, and an animated series. With grace and empathy, Angela discusses the choice to remain open-hearted after unimaginable loss, her passion to replace judgment with compassion, how her gift of storytelling is both therapeutic personally, while also enabling others to fully realize human connections, and how consistently love has shown up in her life as her community surrounded her to carry on Emily’s legacy.Episode Mentions:Emily’s Hope Foundation Website: https://www.emilyshope.foundation/Emily’s Hope Foundation Instagram: @emilyshope_Emily’s Hope Foundation Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emilyshopefoundationGrieving Out Loud Podcast: https://www.emilyshope.foundation/grieving-out-loudAngela’s Blog: https://www.emilyshope.foundation/angelas-blogEmily’s Hope Art Show and Auction: https://www.emilyshope.foundation/new-eventsAvera Addiction Care Center: https://www.avera.org/locations/profile/avera-addiction-care-center-sioux-falls/KELO’s Gene Coyle Purple Heart News Story: https://www.keloland.com/news/gene-coyle-to-receive-purple-heart/