Gabriel's Challenge launches in effort to bring 'the heart of family into the heart of our city' to curb fentanyl deaths

Yahoo

12-05-2025

May 11—As a deluge drowned Riverfront Park on Sunday, hundreds sought refuge indoors at the Gesa Credit Union Pavilion to address fentanyl abuse in Spokane.
Last year, 259 people died from opioid overdoses in Spokane County, according to county data. That's up 36% compared with 2023. This year's death toll is at 59 as of April.
One of those digits represents the death of Gabriel Fensler, who died in March from a fentanyl overdose the day after his 24th birthday. Fensler was "thoughtful, funny and he was trying," said his mother, Kitara Johnson Jones, describing her son's involvement in treatment programs and incremental steps towards sobriety before he purchased the fentanyl that took his life.
Jones spent her Mother's Day evening corralling a collection of Spokane leaders in government, business, faith, nonprofit sectors and hundreds of members of the community to kick off the first day of Gabriel's Challenge in honor of her late son.
Fensler passed time while in treatment centers by drafting a 66-page plan he called the "Community Care Collaborative" to address drug use with compassion, treating those in the throes of addiction like family.
Now, two months after his death, Jones is bringing Fensler's vision to life. Based on Fensler's playbook, Gabriel's Challenge spans 36 days, beginning on Mother's Day and ending on Father's Day on June 15.
"He knew, he believed we could come together," Jones told her crowd at the pavilion. "He even told me that I was going to lead it, and I was going to have a group of advisers. ... Although I was hurt, this right here lets me know that it's OK."
In a passionate endorsement, local officials — including Mayor Lisa Brown, U.S. Rep. Michael Baumgartener, City Council President Betsy Wilkerson, County Sheriff John Nowels and Spokane Public Schools Superintendent Adam Swinyard — spoke at the event, with many taking the cadence of a preacher.
Brown issued an official proclamation in recognition of Gabriel's Challenge.
The challenge includes several asks of Spokane residents centered around building human connection.
"The Gabriel Challenge is not just about fentanyl and overdoses, it's about seeing who's around you, who's struggling," said Leilani Knypstra, Jones' teenage daughter and Fensler's sister.
First, Jones asks organizations and individuals to "adopt a block" around Spokane's downtown. During the challenge, participants are to walk around their chosen intersection and convene with the people who live there. Through empathy, prayer and education around fentanyl use, she asks participants to "let strangers know they are seen, not forgotten." Of the 40 blocks identified on the Gabriel's Challenge website, several are already claimed by religious groups, businesses and individuals.
Asked on Sunday whether she'd be adopting a block, event attendee Julie Brown responded with an emphatic, "Oh, yes." She works at Family Promise of Spokane, an emergency homeless shelter in the Chief Garry Park Neighborhood. Friends of hers have already been patrolling the streets during late-night hours, distributing peanut butter sandwiches to people living outside.
For the next step, Jones asks that residents limit their cellphone screen time to fewer than two hours each day. Relying on screens, Jones said, creates divisiveness that then seeps into daily interactions with others .
"It's hard when we don't see each other as family. It's hard when a mom goes online, and she sees people destroy her child," Jones said, referencing the social media comments making light of her son's and other opioid-related deaths. "It's like watching the death all over again, because we say mean things to each other online that we would never say to each other's faces."
For the final step, Jones arranged community "mapping meetings" through the duration of the challenge from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
She hopes the meetings will help create productive conversations around fentanyl use and prevention by bringing together city officials, health care providers, families and more and help residents build a clearer path to recovery.
The first meeting will feature Nowels, who will educate on fentanyl, the second will include Narcan training and the third will host a panel of young people affected by fentanyl use, City Council President Betsy Wilkerson said.
As he struggled with addiction during his steps toward recovery , Fensler wrote in letters that he felt his family were the only ones who had his back. Thinking of those facing addiction who don't have supportive kin, Jones implored the community to extend a familial hand to people while walking the city, and to start with "asking their story," she said in an interview Friday.
"I believe Spokane can tell a better story," Jones said. "We can invite the heart of family into the heart of our city and the heart of our county, and we can stop blaming each other, because if we do it long enough, we can get some solutions."
Elena Perry's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.