Fifty-Six
Fifty-six. Though it may not seem a significant number on its own, in Hancock County, it serves as a grim reminder of 56 lives that ended too soon.
Between 2017 and 2021, 56 people were lost to overdose in Hancock County. Each loss has left behind a web of heartbreak for family members, friends, neighbors, and affected others. For them, and for our Downeast communities as a whole, fifty-six is a grim reminder of the lives that substance use disorder has taken from Hancock County in the last five years alone.
Overdose and overdose deaths have continued to rise in 2022, and are affecting every community without discrimination. Annual International Overdose Awareness day - August 31, 2022 - is an awareness campaign that encourages us to remember and honor those lost to overdose, continue our efforts to end overdose, and advocate for change.
Please join us on Wednesday, August 31, 2022 - International Overdose Awareness Day - at INSPIRE Recovery Center (24 Church Street, Ellsworth) to experience a memorial display of 56 pairs of shoes, each pair representing a life lost - mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children, and friends - who died from overdose in Hancock County between 2017 to 2021. The Center will host an Overdose Awareness Event from 5:30 p.m. to 6 pm. to remember and honor all who have been lost to overdose, and to support our families, neighbors, and loved ones who have been affected by substance use.
Gather together with us in the INSPIRE parking lot at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 31, for a candlelight vigil and shared moment of silence. Hear from Gordon Smith, Maine Director of Opioid Response; Shelley Yankowsky, a 911 dispatcher who lost both sons to overdose within a year of one another; and others as they bear witness to the wide-reaching impacts of overdose. Community members are invited to add their photos and written sentiments in honor of friends and loved ones who have been lost to overdose to our shared community memory board. Harm reduction materials, including Naloxone (Narcan) and Fentanyl Test Strips, will be available at no cost.
The Fifty-Six memorial, along with information about locally-available substance prevention and recovery resources, will be on display (indoors) throughout September - National Recovery Month - at the following Ellsworth locations, in continued remembrance of these lives lost and the many community members impacted by substance use disorder:
September 6-9, 2022 - Machias Savings Bank, 93 High Street, Ellsworth
Week of September 12, 2022 - Ellsworth Public Library, 20 State Street, Ellsworth
There is still an opportunity for one or two additional host sites for this moving and life-affirming awareness-building display in the second half of September. If your business or organization is interested in hosting this display, please be in touch with Beth Alteri at beth.alteri@healthycadia.org or 207-412-2288 Ext. 401.
To access substance prevention and recovery resources, click here.
To make a gift in support of these critical resources, visit bit.ly/SupportRecoveryReadyCommunities.
Healthy Acadia would like to thank Machias Savings Bank’s High Street location in Ellsworth and the Ellsworth Public Library for partnering to help spread awareness about substance use disorder (SUD) in our communities and ways to prevent and recover from SUD.