SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — An Iowa man is on a national tour to raise awareness on mental health, addiction, and overdose.

Today he is making a stop in South Dakota. Unfortunately, he’s uniquely qualified to talk about loss.

Jeff Johnston launched the Living Undeterred Tour to find purpose in his own pain.

“So our son died, just like Angela’s daughter passed away our son died at 23, from fentanyl and then my wife passed away from alcohol abuse that I have to say came from the grief of losing a child so I just watched in a period of 6 or 7 years my life unravel,” said Johnston.

Johnston is traveling the country with two sons, a cousin and a documentary crew. Their goal is to raise a million dollars to fight addiction. Johnston is collaborating with our own Angela Kennecke. Emily’s Hope is the state partner for the tour in South Dakota and will host an event to raise awareness tonight on the campus of Augustana University.

“The money being raised is going to come back to the local communities and that’s why it important like tonight at Augustana that we get the community ground swelling support because we can’t do this alone, I mean Angela and I can’t run around and just do this by ourselves we need to have people engaged, said Johnston.

One of the places Johnston is engaging people is on the highways, his RV is a moving billboard.

“The RV is a mental health magnet,” he said.

By that, Johnston means people see it and are curious.

“I wanted to drive around the country with this wrapped living undeterred tour mental health initiative, people are looking at it, it’s starting the conversation,” said Johnston.

Johnston’s tour started in Iowa at the state capitol.

And much like tonight’s expected crowd at Augie, this crowd in Cedar Rapids was full of people whose lives have been touched by addiction in one way or another.

“There are ways we can get through life without having to be depressed, sad and angry and I call that the better road, and most of us, unfortunately, spend our time on the bitter road. And I just don’t have time for that,” said Johnston.

After tonight the tour heads through North Dakota to Montana.

Jeff and Angela will tell their stories Tuesday night. There will be Narcan training and a panel of experts will speak. The event is free and runs from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Augie’s Froiland Science Complex.