End Overdose in Watauga
Time: 07:00 pm
Location: We hope to meet again at the greenspace in front of the Human Service Complex (housing Daymark, DSS, Health Department, Senior Center), where the Farmer’s Market happens. We are awaiting approval.
The rain location will be the gym at Boone United Methodist Church behind New Market Center.
Public/Private: Public
Individual/Organisation: Individual
Name of Organisation:
Contact: Mary McKinney
Phone: 828-263-4113
Email: endoverdoseinwatauga@gmail.com
Web: https://www.facebook.com/groups/365204995689397
The 3rd Annual End Overdose in Watauga (EOIW) County, in Conjunction with IOAD, will take place in Boone, NC on August 31, 2023. The goals of this event include:
* intentionally honoring the people who are no longer with us
* while supporting the people who loved them (which often includes the people alongside them during problematic substance use and in the spaces where they sought survival and recovery)
* and to prevent loss of life due to overdose.
If you have lost a loved one, please feel free to share a tribute to them at https://www.facebook.com/groups/365204995689397 so we can help you remember and honor them. If you would like for your loved one to be specifically honored during the 8/31, please contact endoverdoseinwatauga@gmail.com.
If you want to include your loved one with a square on the memorial quilt, please see these details:
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10227741046825338&set=pcb.577930857750142
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10227741046785337&set=pcb.577930857750142
Throughout the day (including in the hour before the 7:00pm event) and in various locations across Boone, overdose prevention and reversal training will take place and free supplies will be available. Please look for details here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/365204995689397/permalink/577930857750142
14 purple path lights will be on display to honor the 14* lives lost to overdose in Watauga County last year. These lights will surround a purple cupboard where overdose reversal supplies will be available, along with information about local resources and a mailbox to deposit names to be honored on 8/31 and letters to/about lost loved ones. These notes will be used to create “found poetry” to honor those lost and the people who love them.
*statistic according to https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/prov-county-drug-overdose.htm
During the evening of 8/31:
*display of the memorial quilt in progress [The completed quilt will be displayed at the September 30th Recovery Community Block Party.]
*overdose prevention and reversal training and supplies (throughout the day and before the event)
*live music from the Hodges family (Lisa & Lee Hodges and Elisha Hodges Frye – Lee and Elisha of Blue Country)
*tables with resource information about stopping overdose deaths, grief support, and multiple paths to recovery
*speakers to share experiences and information
*communal space to hold grief and remember lost loved ones
*candlelight walk to honor and remember lost loved ones