Jeffrey Veatch

Jeffrey Veatch, a news writer at ABC News Radio for 40 plus years, moved to Yorktown Heights, NY in 1996 with his wife, Marina, 5 year old son, Justin, and 2 year old daughter, Elena. Veatch won a national Writers Guild award in 2007 for ABC’s World News This Week.

In September, 2008 Veatch’s life took a drastic turn when Justin died at age 17 from an accidental drug overdose. In addition to being athletically active Justin had been an extremely talented musician-singer-songwriter who had professionally recorded several of his songs. His death resulted in the Veatch family creating the non-profit, Justin Veatch Fund, which awards scholarships and creates programs for talented teen musicians. The mission was to honor Justin’s legacy by giving like-minded teens what the Veatches could no longer do for their son. This also led to the release of the CD Permagrin, a compilation of Justin’s songs including covers from a wide variety of artists distributed by Polyvinyl Records.

In 2012 Veatch created a multi-media talk titled, A Message from Justin, which tells Justin’s story in a very personal way with the goal of changing attitudes of young people on the dangers of drugs. By the fall of 2014 Veatch had delivered that talk to more than 20-thousand students in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. In November 2014, Whispering Spirits, an independently produced documentary about Justin and the Veatch family, premiered at The Jacob Burns Film Center. The film, directed and produced by Yorktown native Sean Gallagher, made a strong impression on Jacob Burns' founder Stephen Apkon who had since created the new media company, Reconsider, which is dedicated to media that redefines the world we live in. Apkon took on the role of executive producer of the film and provided funding for distribution. In April of 2016 Whispering Spirits was signed on by 150 anti-drug coalitions in 36 states for community showings along with a discussion guide authored by Student Assistance Services Corp. The Justin Veatch Fund hopes to widen that distribution in the coming months.

With the release of Whispering Spirits, interest in A Message from Justin has expanded outside the greater New York region. Veatch, who has retired from ABC News, hopes the film will help introduce his talk to new audiences from California to Maine.