MONTICELLO, Ill. (WCIA) — Jan Gantz and Stephen Lyons, a married couple from Piatt County, saved a substance abuse recovery program at Piatt County Mental Health Center last Thursday with a donation of $100,000.

The program — the Recovery Oriented System of Care — provides counseling and social events for people working towards recovery.

For Gantz and Lyons, the issue of addiction hits close to home.

“We have lost a grandson to an overdose,” Gantz said. “His siblings, Harper and Sage and Finn, I just want to say that this is, in a way, a memorial to your brother.”

The Mental Health Center applied to the state for 2026 funding for its ROSC program, but its application was denied. 

Tony Kirkman, executive director at the center, said the program was ready to shut down completely.

“At that moment, we were literally deconstructing the program. We were discarding old stuff and our employee was actually interviewing for other jobs,” Kirkman said.

That’s the moment Gantz and Lyons knew, they had to step up and help.

“We couldn’t believe that something so important to people’s wellbeing was being declined,” Gantz said.

Her and her husband’s donation will keep the program afloat for the next year, helping the center provide services like the free Narcan boxes found in every town in the county.

“I believe that because of that, we’ve had zero opioid related fatalities in the past year,” Kirkman said.

The center will reapply for state funding next year.