On April 9th of last year we lost a bright, beautiful soul.Haley Paternoster was just 16, a sophomore at the Media Arts Collaborative Charter School (MACCS).She was creative, compassionate and intelligent with a bright future, but she tragically became a statistic in the growing trend of teen heroin addiction when she overdosed, went into a coma from which she never awoke.

The students of Advanced music production class here at MACCS have responded to this tragedy by beginning work on an original album of hip-hop music themed around heroin awareness.Our hope is that this album will raise awareness of the growing problem of teen heroin addiction, and maybe, just maybe, prevent another tragedy before its too late.We have just completed our first track, "Haley We Miss You"dedicated to her memory.

Haley's father, Steve Paternoster has pledged funding for he pressing and distribution of 1000 copies of the finished CD, funds from which canbe used as seed money to start a youth-media incubator here at MACCS dedicated to social activism and advocacy for at risk-youth while training New Mexico's future media professionals.