In Friday’s Eagle, we learned of the local commemoration of International Overdose Awareness Day at Calvary Church.

Dozens gathered to remember those lost to fatal overdoses, both years ago and in the very recent past. Events such as this are extremely important for a number of reasons.

First, they give people who are grieving the death of a loved one to share their pain with others who have some idea what they are going through. That sense of belonging and of being understood is immensely helpful during the healing process.

Second, it gives the general public a deeper understanding of not just the scale of our current drug crisis but also the personal suffering it causes.

And third, it might give people who are struggling with addiction hope that there is help out there, and show examples not only of the dangers they face, but also the success stories others have lived.

Sammi Confer, who shared during the event that she has been sober for nearly four years, noted the people who died from overdoses are more than numbers, and it's up to those who survived to be their voices.

And they need voices to remind the world not only that they lived, but that their lives mattered.

Mary Conner, the keynote speaker at Thursday’s event, spoke about her son Michael, who died after an overdose in 2020. She knows firsthand that addiction can strike any family.

“Every one of you is one injury, one crisis away from being in the same place,” she said.

There’s yet another reason events like this are important.

Stories like Mary Conner's and like that of Melissa Ofchinick, whose 27-year-old son Dustin Scott died after an overdose in August, are a reminder of the ravages of the ongoing opioid epidemic and also a way to tear down the stigma that still exists.

“You know, just because he was on drugs doesn’t make him a bad person,” she said Thursday.

Remembering that, and erasing that stigma, is one way to make it easier for people to seek treatment for addiction. And that is something that will save lives.

— JK