Zach's Cares: Music, Kindness, Everything Else

Zach's Cares - "1. Music 2. Kindness 3. Everything Else"

My name is Garrick Davis. It has been the deepest, most gratifying experience of my life to be, and to be known as "Zach's dad" for the past 29 years.

It is with a focused heart and mind that I wish to build a nonprofit organization to be officially known as "Zach's Cares". The tagline you see above: "1. Kindness 2. Music 3. Everything Else" was lifted from Zach's Facebook bio which reads: "1. music, 2. everything else."

Hearing from fellow musicians, nursing students and friends in the Recovering Community as well as old classmates it seems a consistent and remarkable trait of Zach's was his "kindness", his passion and talent for music and a penchant for connecting with people of all kinds in a memorable way as Zach evolved to live with authenticity, empathy and compassion.

Zachary Davis-Price died from a drug overdose December 8, 2020. In spite of the many things in life my son was poised to do, a relapse, perhaps triggered by the passing of a close friend two weeks earlier and possibly the isolation from his beloved community due to the Covid 19 lockdown sent him spiraling though Zach had just completed his first rigorous year in the Nursing Program with a 3.98 G.P.A. at The University of San Francisco. 

In the aftermath and fog of emotion I held back to let others know the truth.Two days later I changed my mind because my embrace of love for Zach also comes with the acceptance of his full story and circumstance.

I realized I was focusing on the “stigma of addiction”, concerned what others may think. I came to feel that instead of feeling and being marginalized, people in the fight  for sobriety simply need help and deserve support to recover from the Disease of Addiction.  

Zach dealt with both addiction to opiates and depression. I was told that it was an amazing triumph of will that Zach established the life of positivity and service he was able to with those two things haunting him. He took pride in getting clean. He hated the disease of addiction. Eventually the disease overcame him.

Zach’s displayed a ferocity in his loyalty, kindness, and advocacy for people in need of help. Parents rarely see the full truth of how their children go about the world. How the framework of a child's upbringing affects their friends, the community at large.  

I came to understand that Zach’s presence in “the rooms” was especially potent because of his inviting nature and that he shared his piano and vocal-based musical gift as a tool for bringing people together during meetings.    

It is a principle desire to perpetuate my son's spirit by supporting activities and causes Zach cared about and, as a result, make a difference in the community by bringing people together as he clearly demonstrated as a part of his fight to overcome both an addiction to opiates and depression. This is a foundational mission that will direct Zach’s Cares at the start.

We hope you will contribute to this seed funding campaign. More focused plans are in the works such as an annual music festival we will call the “Zach Fest” and sponsorship to advocate for people that need assistance in their struggle to attain or maintain sobriety and live a productive life.