Members of St. John´s United Church of Christ met at the church Monday and set up these crosses, one for each person who died of an opioid overdoes in 2017. They will be up for around a week at which point other churches may display them across the county.

EVANS CITY — Borough residents saw the return of white shirts on wooden crosses at St. John's United Church of Christ this week, set up to remember the victims of the opioid epidemic and offer support to survivors.

Members of St. John's met at the church Monday and set up the crosses, one for each person who died of an opioid overdose in 2017.

They will be there for about a week, when other churches may take them up and display them across the county.

The T-shirts affixed to each of the crosses list a person's gender and date of death due to an opioid overdose.

“A year ago the church had a program in which they learned about drug addiction and in particular opioid addiction,” said the Rev. Lisa Griffin, pastor. “They wanted to bring attention to it.”

She explained the message of the display is one of support for victims and survivors, as well as a call to action asking community members to do what they can to help.

“It's really a vicious cycle for the people, and it's a loss of control, and it's horrible,” Griffin said. “And (the congregation) also wanted to let people know who are survivors that we mourn with you and that we're here, and we're thinking of you. And we as a community need to be more supportive.”

The church first raised the crosses last year after members learned more about the epidemic and wanted to do something to help.

“The church was concerned about what was going on with the opioid epidemic,” said Donna Sailer, a deacon and board member at St. John's.

“It was very meaningful,” Griffin said. “Some families whose loved ones had died came and put flowers around, and a couple of them came and spoke at the church about their experience.”

Sailer and Griffin said the response from the community has been overwhelmingly positive.

“We had responses from some of the families,” Sailer said. “There was one woman who was a grandmother and she talked about her grandchild and what they went through with that.”

Griffin said other than a few people who called to say they found the display troubling, nearly all of the feedback was encouraging.

“A lot of people were really thankful because it opened up their eyes to the problem in the community,” Griffin said.

The crosses will be up for about a week, Griffin said.

Last year other churches took and set up the crosses across the county after St. John's was done with them. St. John's hopes someone or some group will put up the display this year.