A Mill Valley resident who lost her daughter to fentanyl is preparing to bicycle about 30 miles from Richardson Bay to the Farallon Islands to honor her daughter.

Jessica Schiller estimated that her water bike, a pedal-driven vehicle that floats on pontoons, will make the round trip today in 12 to 14 hours. The journey will begin at dawn in Sausalito.

Schiller, who owns the water cycle company Schiller Bikes, is taking the ride as a fundraiser for Shatterproof, a Connecticut nonprofit that focuses on helping addicts.

Schiller’s daughter Naomi died from fentanyl poisoning in 2022. She was a New York University student and a Tamalpais High School graduate.

Schiller believes that her daughter obtained the drug after taking an Uber ride to San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood.

Schiller recalled how her daughter at a young age would encourage her to ride her water bicycle to the Farallones when they drove across the Golden Gate Bridge.

“I’m doing this in honor of her and doing it to honor myself and my own sense of sanity,” she said.

“When you bury your child, it takes a world away from you. It’s the worst human experience to lose a kid and it’s hurt me in profoundly deep ways.”

Since her daughter’s death, Schiller has been involved in raising awareness about the dangers of fentanyl. She joined a panel discussion on the drug last year at the Marin County Office of Education.

“We’re always looking for new ways to raise awareness about fentanyl, and Jessica certainly found one,” said Dr. Matthew Willis, who recently retired as Marin County’s public health officer.

“Her brave plan is inspiring and is the kind of outside-the-box thinking we’ll need to tackle this crisis.”

Fentanyl is a legally manufactured opioid that was designed to be an anesthetic. The substance is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Illicitly produced fentanyl has been used to lace pharmaceutical drugs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that in 2022, the year Schiller’s daughter died, there were more than 110,000 deaths from drug poisoning in the U.S. and that 70% of them involved synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

In Marin County, there were 239 opioid-involved deaths between 2013 and 2023, and 60 of them occurred last year, according to the drug education group OD Free Marin.

Fay Zenoff, a program coordinator for OD Free Marin, said that slightly more than half of fatal drug overdoses in Marin involved fentanyl in 2022 and last year. She said that while it’s too early to know how many fatal overdoses involved the opioid this year, the proportion of cases involving fentanyl will likely be similar.

Lauren Lawson-Zilal, a communications manager at Shatterproof, said that many young people are dying from fentanyl poisoning because they unknowingly ingested medications containing the opioid. “If they’re obtaining medication for depression or anxiety, and they’re seeking that medication online, then they are getting medication that’s at risk of being laced with fentanyl,” she said.

Shatterproof is a 10-year-old organization that offers resources to addicts about where they can seek treatment. It also runs a campaign that encourages addicts to speak openly about their experiences in order to reduce the stigma against people with substance abuse disorders.

Explaining Shatterproof’s name, Lawson-Zilal said: “We don’t want addiction to shatter another family.”

“We are so honored she would consider Shatterproof,” she said about Schiller’s fundraiser. “The fact that she’s doing this in memory of her daughter — we are extremely honored for her to do that and to raise awareness.”

Schiller said that she is training for her long trip to the Farallones by cycling indoors at least two hours a day and taking three- to four-hour rides on Richardson Bay. She has been involved in water bike races around the world, including trips from Corsica to Monte Carlo in the Mediterranean Sea, and a journey from the Bahamas to Florida.

“I’ve got a mission, and for me, the mission is bringing awareness to addiction and how to fight addiction, and end this insane opioid crisis that plagues a lot of families in Marin,” Schiller said.

She noted that the trip to the Farallones is worth it after meeting so many other parents who also lost their children to overdoses in Marin County.

“If it took me 20 hours, it would still be worth it to me,” Schiller said.

Donors can contribute at shatterproof.org/39776/in-lieu-of-gifts/naomis-ride.