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When you look back over the life of Albert Lean Angie Olson, you’ll quickly see someone who has found purpose in helping people both at work and out in the community.

Over the last two decades that has meant working in the field of addiction recovery, in which she has been a licensed alcohol and drug counselor since 2003 and working for Fountain Centers for 15 years.

Olson said she has a four-year degree in community health education and a bachelor’s degree in alcohol and drug studies and has always had an interest in health.

Through her career she has worked in everything from detox to continuing care, the whole realm of chemical dependency. Currently she focuses on education, motivational enhancement and relapse prevention, spending a lot of face-to-face time with male patients in the health system’s residential program.

“I feel that no one changes overnight,” she said. “It is a process, and we have to remember and accept that.”

This passion has carried over into her community volunteer efforts outside of work, in which she has been a part of recovery events.

For about three years, Olson has been part of a team of individuals known as the Substance Abuse Frontline Emergency Response Team, which formed after the overdose death of a teenager in the community.

“We pulled a team of people because of the opioid epidemic, and we felt that something needed to be done,” she said.

The team is made up of alcohol and drug counselor Lee Zuniga, Olson, pastors George and Jill Marin of Grace Christian Church, as well as Jennifer Hendrickson and Kay Drenth, who all have professional experience in the field. George Marin said they had worked together previously, and Zuniga was friends with the teenager who died and his mother.

Working with the Steve Rummler Hope Network, the group started providing free naloxone kits in the community and more recently have begun offering spray Narcan.

Naloxone is a medication approved by the Federal Drug Administration to reverse an opioid overdose in as little as two to five minutes.

“I felt it was much needed,” Olson said. “We encourage people to try to save lives. We can’t help anyone if they’re not alive.”

After the teenager died, they hosted a vigil at the skate park and gave out 50 naloxone kits in the first 30 minutes. At the boy’s funeral, they gave out 75 more.

He said Olson has been a key part of the effort.

“She’s such an excellent communicator,” Marin said. “A lot of people know her in the business community, in the recovery community. She’s so passionate about getting naloxone into the hands of every single person who will let her.”

She has not only volunteered at the naloxone access point at Grace Christian but actively comes to the church to pick up kits and distribute them in the community, he said.

Marin said Olson is perfect at communicating what naloxone is and how it can save lives.

The team’s efforts recently went mobile. Instead of having a certain access point and time each week where people can pick up kits, people can now call Marin or Zuniga, who will deliver the kits to them. In addition to naloxone kits and Narcan, they have fentanyl and xylazine testing strips.

“We want to try to remove barriers and get to people,” Marin said.

He said he is aware of at least 15 lives saved because of their efforts.