[Note: The $5 price point for making these is based on buying all of the materials for these kits discussed below in bulk with nonprofit sales tax exemptions. We’ve tested this with ordering materials for making 1,000+ kits at once & learning as we go. Not ordering materials in bulk? It may be a bit more.]
Every year, Save a Life Day inspires fresh innovation at the forefront of naloxone distribution and challenging stigma.
The theme for 2024’s free naloxone day was “naloxone everywhere” – inspiring the development of this low-cost wall box. Thanks to generous sponsors, in 2024 and again in 2025, each county was sent a few of these emergency naloxone wall boxes to help make this life-saving opioid overdose reversal drug available when and where it’s most needed in your communities. These boxes work great on restroom walls, next to first aid kids, in building lobbies, waiting rooms, offices, etc. Basically, everywhere.
These wall box configurations and sticker designs are all also open-source under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-a-Like license. So, you can make your own–and even innovate on the design!
More specifically, the Creative Commons license means you’re welcome to copy and modify this model as well as the stickers designs as long as you promote the work in a non-commercial manner (i.e. without selling it). We want naloxone to be as accessible as possible for everyone, which is why we’re making the wall box design and instructions free and publicly available.
How to Make Your Own $5 Emergency Naloxone Wall Boxes
Step 1: Get yourself some pencil cases
To make your own kit, first you must get your hands on some good cases. A case that can hold current nasal naloxone boxes is a Romanoff pencil case. You can order these cases individually via online retailers like K12School Supplies, Target, or Amazon. If you’re interested in wholesale prices, contact the Romanoff company directly (wholesale is where the real savings is!). Romanoff is also a Sponsor of Save a Life Day 2025.
In addition to being a good fit for all the major nasal naloxone boxes, Romanoff pencil cases also have a flat space on the front for a sticker–this is a fairly crucial element. Romanoff pencil cases come in various colors, though yellow has been a color we’ve been working with so far as it matches the Save a Life Day design palette. Perhaps folks will have fun with the other colors, like strawberry, turquoise, or purple. (Some trivia: the Romanoff fruit names are a transparent version of a color [i.e. “lemon” for transparent yellow]).
Step 2: Make stickers and put ’em on!
You can check out all three of the main 5” by 3” sticker designs needed for the case in Canva here (or you can download them all here via Dropbox). The Canva link includes the more current designs. As pictured above, the “Emergency Naloxone” design goes on the top of the case (it may seem like you’re putting it on upside-down since when it’s on the wall, the case will open from the top down).
Inside the pencil case, you can use the below design to include adrenaline-proof naloxone instructions, placing it on the other side of the top cover. Remember, if you’d like, you ought to be able to customize/re-visit the “what to do” instructions too with the Canva link shared previously.
In the Canva file, you’ll also see the design below for the inside bottom of the case to point people to the CDC for more information about naloxone. This will go behind the naloxone box itself.
Step 3: Use adhesive stickers for inside/outside
To bring the whole box together, a few adhesives are key.
To help the naloxone gently stick to the inside of the case (and not come flying out when the case is opened), you can use two restickable mounting squares. You can place them on the inside back of the pencil case, on top of both sides of the QR-code design.
With these restickable squares, generally, if you remove the naloxone, you can stick it or another box back on. So that’s cool!
For the external back of the pencil case, two of these double-sided sticky pads will do the trick. If you’re using a Romanoff pencil case, place them on the left and right of the slightly elevated bar on the back so it will stick flush with a wall. To make it really stick to a wall, push it down against the wall from the inside.
Step 4: CPR mask, bonus stuff, & stay in touch!
Including a CPR mask is also clutch. You can purchase bulk masks here.
If you’re sending these out as kits to be assembled, you can also include a how-to instructional sheet.
Consider a local printing shop for help with printing the sticker designs. Here in Charleston, WV: Echo-Lit has been tremendous to work with on prototyping and helping to print these designs.
The SOAR and Save a Life Day team are so excited to see how folks utilize these new naloxone wall boxes on annual Save a Life Days and all the days in between. Where will you put the boxes? What stories will they tell? Will you try some design tweaks or other approaches to improve their impact?
Please stay in touch! Use the official hashtag: #SaveaLifeDay. And always feel free to drop a note to [email protected] & [email protected]!