A Sobering Reminder
There are 84 crosses overlooking Main Street through the first week of January.
Each one represents more than a death. The purple that pops from each cross stands for overdose awareness.
“We have 84 crosses with 84 wreaths that have purple ribbons on them,” said Georgette Fleeger, project manager for the 2017 overdose memorial.
Fleeger said the crosses took months to be where they are today, in the lot where the former Worsley's store once stood.
“That was a piece of property that was donated to us for the rest of the year,” Fleeger said. “What better place than Main Street?”
She said the project has taken a month to complete. The crosses were loaned for the project by St. John's United Church of Christ in Evans City. A crew of volunteers placed the crosses last Friday, but not under the guise of any particular group.
“We're just concerned citizens doing it,” Fleeger said. “Everybody knows somebody that's affected by this.”
Fleeger, who owns Second Chance Sober Living House in Butler, is no stranger to addiction. She is living her life in recovery and has encouraged others to do the same by giving them a home.
“For me there is a way out,” Fleeger said. “My hope is that anybody can find that.”
Despite her support, she had two former residents of her recovery home who didn't survive the year.
“We're losing lives every day to the disease of addiction,” Fleeger said. “Hopefully we can strike back at the epidemic.”
Butler County Commissioner Kevin Boozel also is familiar with this loss, having experience as a firefighter and EMT. He said the deaths leave families devastated.
“It's heart-wrenching to me,” he said.
Boozel said the total deaths by overdose may look astonishing in person, but progress is being made.“If you follow that trend line, we should have 120 to 125 deaths to overdoses,” Boozel said. “We are well under 100, and I attribute that to the work (support groups) are doing.”The Butler County Coroner's Office last week reported the number of deaths by overdose at 83. The number is expected to rise in the closing days of 2017 as pending cases are processed.Boozel said Butler is struggling just like anywhere else, but there are people in the county doing their best every day to fight addiction.“Unfortunately it takes a tragedy for people to realize how blessed we are to have a community like Butler,” Boozel said.He said this project looks to be successful because the volunteers who put the project together pursued an awareness project without the need for recognition and while maintaining a level of respect for the families of the deceased.“They carried it out pretty well, I think,” Boozel said.Fleeger said recognition, which she and no one else who worked on this project want, would have been a distraction from the real message.“When you actually look at the memorial, those are lives,” Fleeger said. “Those are people.”
