During the past few years Serve Daily has published many articles about Ryan Stream. Many of our readers are familiar with the story of his biological parents having a serious drug addiction problem and were in and out of jail frequently in his childhood.
He and his brothers were put in separate foster homes. He and his brothers were adopted by a police officer and raised as members of the Stream family. That brought a new life to Ryan.
In High School Ryan got involved in drugs and the law. During a sentence hearing Ryan pleaded with the Judge to allow him to enroll in the U.S. Army and serve in Afghanistan.
After two tours of duty and lots of reflecting on his life, he returned home with a mission to motivate people of all ages to achieve anything they dream of.
His theme is that you write your own story. You may have a bad chapter, but the next chapter can be better. Ryan Stream presents a high energy motivational presentation playing the piano and singing lyrics that he wrote and music that he composed.
Now another Ryan enters the picture, Ryan Palmer, who lost his 20-year-old son, Jeremy, to a fatal drug overdose at a party in 2013 in Manti.
Ryan Palmer was motivated to reach out to young people Jeremy’s age with a message of addiction awareness and a different path.
He realized that in this day and age he needed to write, produce, and shoot a music video. A friend told him about Ryan Stream, a musician and motivational speaker who told his story of drug addiction. It is a story of overcoming challenges and making the choices.
Palmer liked the contrast between his son Jeremy and Ryan Stream as a story of tragedy and success based on two people making decisions differently. Palmer and Stream met and began to collaborate on a video that would capture the attention of young people.
Jeremy liked fast cars and motorcycles. He particularly liked “catching air” on his motorcycle and the video has a stunt motorcyclist doing a jump and summersault directly over Ryan Stream playing the piano on the Bonneville Salt Flats. They had a new corvette for a fast automobile.
The video was financed largely by Ryan Palmer with additional support from Ryan Stream.
The movie debuted at Ephraim’s Canyon View Park on Sept. 14. Janice Helmick writes about her reflection on this emotional and motivating event.
“Just before sunset the first concert performer, Tristan Cole, opened with several numbers. Then Ryan Palmer walked up and sat on the front edge of the stage. He told his very personal story of the tragedy of losing his only son to drugs. It brought tears to many eyes. The story touched me deeply as I have friends and family who have struggled with drug addiction.
“Everything was quiet and the sun had gone down. Suddenly the firetruck and ambulance parked nearby flashed their lights and a spotlight focused on a figure standing on top of the firetruck. It was Ryan Stream. He started singing, climbed off the truck, and walked to the stage. Ryan talked about his life experiences of his mother’s suicide, his father’s imprisonment, of seeing his little brother for the last time, and of meeting Officer Stream. He talked about looking in the back of the police car and seeing his little brother and being told he was being adopted by the Stream family. He told of the change that came to his life and how much he loved and appreciated the Stream family the way they accepted him.
“However, he still started to use drugs. He was arrested and stood before a judge He asked the judge to allow him to join the Army and be deployed to Afghanistan. The judge granted his requested, and he served two tours.
He shared the story of having a daughter and a child on the way when he was deployed the second time, and his daughter’s plea that he come home.” (Helmick is a Serve Daily contributor.)
