Rural Northeast Wisconsin Families hosted two epi-classes on June 17th for local businesses and residents at Fire and Iron Gathering, Clintonville. During the event, Rural Northeast Wisconsin Families was recognized for taking steps to ensure epinephrine will be available in the event of emergency. We also have several family members that are certified and trained to administer the epi-pens if needed as well. Effective immediately, we will have epi-pens at any event we attend. We only have 2 pens so we still need more people to sign up!

Ten years ago, 18-year old Dillon was doing yardwork with his friend on the family farm. A tiny bee changed the lives of many people that day. Epinephrine was not available fast enough and Dillon never regained consciousness. He saved many lives by being an organ donor and his family is working hard to ensure no other families have to go through this horrible loss. Since the Do It For Dillon Law was passed in Wisconsin in 2017 , more than 13 lives have been saved by certified Good Samaritans.

Dillon’s family isn’t done yet. There are 3 Congressional bills that currently need legislative support. The first two will make Dillon’s Law a national law. There are several states that still need to sign the bill. Sadly, despite the law being in Wisconsin for the last 6 years, Senator Baldwin and Senator Johnson have not signed the current bill yet. The third bill will cap the price of a 2-pack of epinephrine pens to $60. Currently a 2-pack could run as high as $750. In a severe anaphylactic reaction, a person may need more than 2 doses before EMS even arrives. Please go to EpiForDilly.com, the links are there for you to reach out to your representatives. Most of the work was done for you. I won’t get into a lot of political details, but three things to note: One: if these bills aren’t signed before Congress goes on break, they will die in Congress and all the work will be for naught. Two: The original bill in Wisconsin was drafted and signed in under one year. It might be a good idea to see which legislator was able to make that happen. We want politicians in office who do what they say they will and quickly. I’ll give a hint, that politician is running for the currently open House of Representatives seat vacated by Mike Gallagher. Three: If you call or write your representative, they have to do something with that correspondence. They can’t just ignore it. Your voice does matter.

We will host additional classes to allow more people and businesses to get certified. Please complete our survey. It will help us schedule the class to get the most attendance. If you’d like to donate towards the cost of acquiring more epi-pens for our events and our office building, please contact us. Please consider donating towards the Dillon Mueller Memorial Fund as well.

Editors Note: If anyone was present for the event and got some pictures, we’d appreciate if you’d share them with us.