This begins with Dawne Montes — born November 16, 1970 — a wife, mom, friend, and quiet force of nature. She was selected to go to Quantico, VA to train as an FBI profiler, graduated 2nd in her class from Washington University in St. Louis, and chose to spend nearly 20 years as a Special Education teacher instead — fighting for students most people overlooked. This isn’t a sanitized memorial; it’s a living, breathing record of who she was and why we refuse to let her be reduced to “an overdose.”
I’m Joey — Dawne’s husband, a dad, a builder, and the one who had to keep breathing when she didn’t. On December 22, 2016, our entire world fractured. Out of that night came a promise: to our boys, to her memory, and to anyone walking through similar fire — I would tell the truth, plant hope in the ground, and build work that actually protects real families.
The Plant a Tree project began as a simple, desperate act: plant trees in Dawne’s name so our grief had roots and shade and something living to hold onto. HeartPlanted grew from that seed — a way for families, dealerships, churches, and communities to turn loss, love, and gratitude into real trees in real ground, in honor of Dawne and others like her.
Before The Dig Foundation, before HeartPlanted, there was just us — Dawne and Joey, the boys, road trips, music too loud in the kitchen, IEP meetings, lesson plans spread across the table, and a house that never stayed quiet for long. Faith, family, classrooms, and a thousand ordinary moments that felt like they’d last forever.
This chapter holds who Dawne was in the everyday: the way she loved, the way she mothered, the way she showed up for her students, and the way she made our world feel safe.
Now I live as a widowed dad and founder who has seen the worst night a family can live through — coming home, being told “I don’t think mom is breathing,” calling 911, doing CPR, and watching everything fracture on December 22, 2016. Out of that came Plant a Tree, HeartPlanted, and The Dig Foundation: ways to turn unspeakable pain into honest warning, living memorials, and hope with roots.
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This isn’t branding spin. It’s the record I owe my sons and any family standing where we once stood — confused, shattered, and desperate for someone to just tell the truth.
Next is more than survival. It’s thousands of trees planted in Dawne’s honor and in the names of other loved ones. It’s dealer test-drive programs that plant trees instead of just pushing metal. It’s The Dig Foundation taking the real story of prescriptions and addiction into schools, churches, and homes before another family has to make that call.
If you’re here to help, plant, host, sponsor, or simply listen — there’s room around this table and space in this field.
Dawne Marie Montes (11/16/1970 – 12/22/2016) was not a headline or a statistic. She was mom, bonus mom, wife, best friend, inside-joke co-conspirator, and the one who made ordinary days feel like something worth remembering. Brilliant and driven, she turned down a path to Quantico and FBI profiling to stay rooted where she felt called: home and the classroom. She graduated 2nd in her class at Washington University in St. Louis and spent about 20 years as a Special Education teacher, standing in the gap for kids who needed someone to really see them. This space keeps her story intact — not just how she died, but how she lived, loved, and held our family and her students together.
The Dig Foundation was created after Dawne’s death as a direct, stubborn answer to the silence around prescription painkillers, addiction, and overdose. It exists so families hear the real story before it’s too late — and so the ones already grieving have somewhere honest to stand, plant, remember, and begin again. Every talk, every resource, every memorial planting is an extension of her legacy: smart, fiercely protective, and deeply human.
The initial idea for **HeartPlanted** (The Plant a Tree Project) was a primal response to Dawne's death on **December 22, 2016**. We needed a way for her memory to be an active, breathing part of the world. It quickly grew into a mission to offer that sense of rooted hope to all families experiencing loss.
A raw, ongoing journal written for my boys, for myself, and for anyone who loved someone like Dawne. Grief, love, anger, faith, rebuilding, and what it means to carry their story honestly into the days they don’t get to see.
The creative and strategic engine that helps fund and fuel the mission: brand systems, campaigns, and experiences that refuse to be shallow. MKTG is where the same honesty that shaped Plant a Tree and The Dig Foundation gets applied to the work I do for others.
The Dig Foundation and Dawne.org exist because one woman’s life deserved more than a quiet obituary. Built in Dawne’s name, they focus on overdose awareness, prescription risk education, early-warning conversations, and memorial projects that hold space for stories like hers — and maybe yours.
If you want to bring Plant a Tree to your dealership, campus, church, or city; if you need someone to tell the truth about prescriptions and grief; or if you just want to talk about building an honest, impact-driven brand in honor of someone you love — this is where to start.
Dawne.org