BRADENTON, Fla. — An ordinary couple doing extraordinary things best describes Michael and Kristen Dunn. 

  • Everyday Heroes Michael and Kristen Dunn
  • Couple created "Your Life Matter" organization which helps people with addiction
  • Your Life Matters

A firefighter/EMT with Cedar Hammock Fire Rescue, it was his work that led Michael to found a life-saving organization along with his wife. 

The couple's foundation "Your Life Matters" is making a difference.

The organization inspires people to make important changes intheir lives. 

"(We're) geared toward educating," Michael Dunn said. "Inspiring people to make changes." 

Those changes are all about beating drug dependence with heroin having a leading role. Michael said he sees the ruinous impacts of drug abuse daily in his job as an EMT. 

"It got to the point where I was responding to five, six, seven, eight OD calls a shift," he said. 

To help fight the growing epidemic, Michael and Kristen created cards that Michael would give to those in need with local and current contact information where help was available. 

"I have never struggled with addiction," Michael said. "But I remeber the emotions and the faces of every single person that I have helped." 

The use of the cards is growing in Manatee County and Hillsborough and other counties across the state have borrowed the idea.

Also, several internet postings from people helped by "Your Life Matters" show the impact the organization is having. 

"That's really the fuel that motivates me," Michael said. "Given that encouragement from somebody whose been through the ringer, whose been struggling through an addiction and came out on the other side clean, happy and living life to the fullest."