Twin Cities to observe Overdose Awareness Day with ceremony
UHRICHSVILLE (WJER) (Aug. 31, 2022) – The 922 Initiative is bringing the Twin Cities community together to remember those who lost their lives to addiction.
The 922 Initiative is holding a National Overdose Awareness Day ceremony tonight at the Panhandle Passage Trailhead off East Third Street. Coordinator Diane Smith says all are welcome at the event that begins at 6 pm and concludes with a moment of silence.
“You don’t have to lose someone to an overdose to come over and just enjoy that moment of silence. Just come over and join forces with us and to take that moment to reflect and just be a community.”
Speakers including ADAMHS Board Executive Director Natalie Bollon will update attendees on the drug crisis that arose alongside the pandemic and highlight the resources available within the community to help people overcome their addictions. Smith says they’ll also share details about the memorial garden they plan to establish there next spring.
“People say, ‘You know I lost a relative to an overdose but unlike other relatives that we lost, I don’t have a gravesite to go to.’ So the 922 Initiative is going to have a memorial garden. We want to have an area where people can go and sit down and just feel at peace.”
She says the situation in the Twin Cities isn’t as dire as it was when the 922 Initiative formed a couple of years ago, although there’s still work to do with the two towns experiencing a combined 19 drug overdoses within the past six months.