WOLCOTT, Conn. — Saturday, Aug. 31 marks International Overdose Awareness Day, and Connecticut communities are remembering those who have lost their battle with addiction.
Wolcott is among towns holding memorials.
“Unfortunately, they lost their battle. But just because they lost their battle doesn’t mean they can’t have a voice,” said Joe Dunn, co-founder and vice president of Crossroads in Wolcott. Crossroads is a grassroots addiction recovery and support organization.
Together with the Crossroads board, Dunn is inviting the community to take part in a candle-lit vigil at a Crossroads memorial site in town, to remember the lives lost too soon. There are benches spread out all along the Scoville Reservoir walking trail, but one in particular holds the names of 30 Wolcott residents who lost their battles with addiction.
“Every name on the bench is a person,” said Dunn.
The bench is easily accessible by entering the trail at the corner of the St. Basil the Great (St. Pius X) Church parking lot.
Data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics indicates that there were an estimated 107,543 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2023. That’s a 3% decrease from the 111,029 deaths estimated in 2022. This marked the first annual decrease in overdose deaths since 2018.
“Until it’s zero, one is going to be too many,” said Dunn.
Working to make that a reality is a challenging but worthy feat for groups like Crossroads.
“It’s not just an individual disease. It’s a family disease; it’s a community disease,” said Dunn. “When you help one person, you help a family and you help the community at large.”
That’s something community members, like Patrick Michaud, agree with.
“They should help people with the illness. Because that’s exactly what it is. An illness.”
“Where that person lies in the numbers, it’s somebody’s son, somebody’s daughter. It’s somebody’s loved one,” said Dunn. “And for this side of it, for the memorial this is the other side of it. We need never to forget that these are human beings, these are people and they matter,” he added.
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Kaelee Collins is a multimedia journalist for FOX61 News. She can be reached at kcollins@fox61.com. Follow her on X, and Instagram.
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