Some think for every death, there is a birth.

In the case of 29-year-old Jesse Campos' death from a drug overdose on Christmas Eve, it spawned the birth of an idea in his older brother, Gavin. An idea for a Facebook page that is growing into a community movement, quickly attracting the attention of more than a thousand people to join in the fight against drug addiction, especially addiction to pain pills.

"When I started the page, I wanted to find people in my situation or in Jesse's situation for moral support. My intentions were to bring people together. I wanted to give everybody a place where they don't have to feel looked down upon," Gavin said. "Honestly, I was just looking for a place to heal."

Gavin, 31, has been on all sides of the drug issue -- the child of an addict, a user, a dealer, a grieving friend, a grieving brother.

"I've been through everything. I've done the drugs. I've sold the drugs," he said. "I remember being in places growing up and seeing people so messed up. Throughout my whole life, my older brothers and sisters, everybody was all involved. Everything except shooting up, I've tried it."

However, during the past five to seven years, Gavin said he has made an effort to change his life, to not continue the cycle. What spurred the change, he's unsure, but he does credit his fiancee, Miranda Smallwood, with helping him succeed.

"I don't know. I grew up. I realized I needed to take care of my family and stop playing these games I'd been playing all my life. When I look back, I wasn't having fun. I was hurting myself and other people," he said.

Gavin got a job, kept it. He started taking classes in business management (he's a quarter away from completion), he coaches and he volunteers at the Ronald McDonald House.

"I did the drugs, sold the drugs and hurt people. If I can change, there's no doubt in my mind other people can do it," Gavin said.

Although he made the effort to improve his life, drugs and addiction have continued to surround him. Within view of his home, he knows of at least three people who are addicted to pain medication. He's had friends from high school die from drug overdoses as well as the daughter of a former neighbor.

"It sucks to see people go like that, and it sucks to see them addicted to things our government allows," Gavin said.

Gavin had talked with Jesse, tried to encourage him to stop the pills, to stop the trips to Florida where laws are more lax and getting prescription pain pills is easy since pain clinics are so plentiful.

Gavin said they used to live in Florida, and Jesse would use his old ID. The trade often works like this -- drug dealers with a little money sponsor someone's trip to get the pain pills in Florida and then they split the pills.

"That was Jesse's way of making money. I begged him over and over to stop," Gavin said.

In early fall, Gavin offered his brother a place to stay and to help him find a job.

"He told me he had to take another trip to Florida," Gavin said. "That's where he got his pills."

On Christmas Eve, Gavin was preparing to have a holiday dinner for family when he got a call from his father.

"When I got the call, all I thought was he wasn't going to make it (to dinner). He said, 'I can't wake him up.' I said, 'What do you mean? I think he overdosed. I think he's dead.'"

Just streets away, Gavin rushed over.

"When I got there, there were numerous addicts out there, and I didn't know any of them," Gavin said.

Three days after Jesse died, Gavin started a Facebook page called Straight Forward - To Help Victims of Pill Addictions.

He called it Straight Forward because he said that is how his mother raised him and being blunt is the only way to maybe get through to people.

"I'm not going to be someone's best friend. I'm not an enabler," Gavin said.

In the first day, 100 people had added the page, and Gavin began to realize the page might become bigger than he ever imagined.

"As an enormous number added the page, I knew this is what I'm here for," Gavin said.

In less than a month, more than 1,700 people have added the Straight Forward page, and they are talking. Recovering addicts are talking about their recovery and getting kudos from others on the page. Addicts are getting words of encouragement to take that step toward help.

Children such as 13-year-old Jessica Chaney are telling it straight, giving a heartfelt, emotional glimpse of the impact addiction has on the children of addicts, and also on the receiving end of encouragement. Chaney spoke out on the Facebook page and attended a Thursday meeting for Straight Forward along with her aunt with whom she is living.

"She should be our spokesman," Gavin said, adding he's interested in getting her to help spread awareness in the schools.

At least one person also has been so inspired they have gotten a tattoo that reads "Straight Forward."

The past few weeks especially have begun to overwhelm him as more and more people share their stories on the page, as more and more people call him personally for help. As more and more ideas of ways to spread awareness fill his mind.

He wants a pamphlet with resources created and distributed to every household in Ross County. He wants to get into the schools, possibly do a mock overdose and a follow-up assembly. He wants to start support meetings for addicts and families and friends of addicts. He wants to give addicts something to accomplish other than getting their fix. He wants to get addicts doing community service to beef up resumes and have meetings where they can fill out multiple job applications.

"We can't just take these drug dealers in and lock them up. We need to get them help, a job. This is killing way too many people," Gavin said.

Gavin has received messages that the page is serving as an inspiration for some to take a step toward help. A friend of his shared a status update from Facebook where an addict said she was going to make the effort to beat addiction after perusing the page.

"That pretty much kicked me in the butt to start doing more. When I started the page, I thought if I could help one person, I would be happy; if I could help more than one person, I would be grateful forever," Gavin said, tearing up. "I accomplished that in the first day."

Gavin has been working to balance being the father of four children ages 1 to 10, working full time and going to classes at Daymar College full time while leading a growing social movement in Ross County -- a galvanized community component that has been missing in the Ross County Drug Abuse Coalition that formed more than two years ago.

Dressed in a long-sleeve, light green button up dress shirt, Gavin presided over a Straight Forward organizational meeting Thursday night at Daymar. The meeting was the second for Straight Forward, and officials at Daymar have provided Gavin the space to conduct the meetings. The goal is to find people to help guide the group, people to whom he can delegate tasks.

He joked with those present he never dresses up, but he knows presentation is important and he wants people such as Paint Valley ADAMH executive director Juni Frey to take him seriously.

Frey, who serves on the drug abuse coalition, first heard of Straight Forward when she was invited to the first meeting this past week. Not knowing what it was, she discounted it. However, after getting a second invitation and seeing when Gavin posted a comment on a Chillicothe Gazette story about the drug overdose numbers increasing in 2011, Frey decided to contact Gavin and find out more.

"The idea of it is really exciting," Frey said of the group.

Raising awareness, advocacy and providing emotional support is where she feels the group is headed -- all components that have been discussed as needed during the drug abuse coalition meetings. She's being trying to help by "talking up" Straight Forward to others around the state.

Frey wasn't the only one at the meeting -- more than a dozen people showed up, including 28-year-old Justin Woodard.

"I'm after redemption for myself," he told the group. "People who know me know I've torn up a lot ... I feel like I've been blessed with the experience of being an addict to help another person ... Everybody can be that one person for somebody and that's how we can change things."

The group bounced around ideas and pointed to needs of Straight Forward -- a mission statement, officers and committees.

"You've got the passion here. That's going to get out," Leesha Malone said. "You have to get the organization down then flood the community (with information)."

Gavin also has reached out to officials in the area such as Mayor Jack Everson, Chillicothe Police Chief Roger Moore, Ross County Sheriff George Lavender and Ross County Coroner Dr. John Gabis, who began sounding the alarm locally at least three years ago as overdose deaths continued to rise.

"I know they know it's an issue, but now they can see it from the perspective of the addict," Gavin said. "We need to stop hiding. I'm picking the rug up, throwing it in the trash and cleaning up the floor."

Although he's feeling eternally grateful, Gavin is far from finished. He pledges to see what he has started through and take it as far as he possibly can. He has dreams of other Straight Forward pages being started in communities across the nation and getting the attention of everyone, from the average person to the president.

"I don't care what background you have, this addiction has no discrimination," Gavin said. "Anything I can do to help these people I will do. I couldn't help my brother, so I'll help someone else."