(ABC 6 News) — The fentanyl epidemic has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives over the past several years, and now, a new national effort is underway to raise awareness and honor the lives lost to this dangerous drug.

Fentanyl Awareness and Prevention Day was only recently established, and it’s coming up on August 21st. Organizers say they hope it will not only help remember the lives that have been lost, but also prevent it from taking any more.

Two people attempting to help in that cause are Hillary Schneider and Sean Doss, the co-founders of Bigger Impact Through Education, or B.I.T.E. One of the first things B.I.T.E. did was become a certified narceine access point, one of only two in Albert Lea.

For 11 years, Schneider and Doss were living in and out of active addictions. Doss is currently in prison, and Schneider has also served time because of her addictions.

“I knew I could have lost my kids, and I would get myself clean every time, but eventually I’d get right back into it,” Schneider said. “We never find a better way to do things. We’re over going back to the same life and doing the same things and watching other people ruin their lives while we think we’re trying to help them or ourselves. In reality, we’re ruining our own life.”

Now, along with Fentanyl Awareness and Prevention Day, Schneider and Doss are working to help other addicts through their new organization.

“With us being previous addicts, they are more comfortable to come to us because they’ve been around us. We’ve seen them at their worst; they’ve seen us at our worst,” Schneider said.

So far, Schneider says having that dose of narceine at the ready has saved at least one person who was overdosing.

“Somebody called me at about 6:00 in the morning about a week ago and told me that somebody in their house they believed was having an overdose, and one of my doses saved their life,” said Schneider.

Now, Schneider and Doss hope the local and national efforts can help save more lives.

Scheider says Doss is working to become a pure recovery support specialist while he is behind bars, so he can help other people recover once he gets out of prison.

For more information about B.I.T.E., click here.