By Ashley Yaugher, Michelle Ward, Mersades Morgan
Join us for a luminary celebration of hope following loss at our 3rd Annual Carbon & Emery A Light to Remember event at Huntington State Park
Local communities in Carbon and Emery Counties, the state of Utah, and around the world are coming together on Saturday, August 31st to remember those who have died or suffered permanent injury due to substance-related overdose.
Observed on August 31 every year, International Overdose Awareness Day (IOAD) seeks to create better understanding of overdose, reduce the stigma of substance-related deaths, and create change that reduces the harms associated with substance use.
Many hundreds of thousands of people around the world lose their lives to overdose each year. In the USA, nearly 105,000 Americans lost their lives to overdose in 2022, the third consecutive year of more than 100,000 overdose deaths (CDC, 2023). Our local Southeast Health District (Carbon, Emery, and Grand) continue to lead the state in overdose deaths (IBIS). We are losing our children, parents, siblings, partners, neighbors, colleagues, and friends.
This is a multifaceted health crisis with few easy answers, but there is one very simple way for you to support overdose awareness and prevention this year. On August 31, 2024 we will be doing our part to raise awareness in Carbon & Emery Counties by hosting A Light to Remember at Huntington State Park. We will come together to remember without shame those lost to overdose, acknowledge the grief of loved ones left behind, reduce the stigma of substance-related deaths, provide education on Narcan and recovery resources, and try to find ways to reduce the incidence and impacts of overdose.
Remembrance event will include a meal from local Gettin’ Our Smoke On food truck (sponsored by Castleview Hospital and the USU Extension HEART Initiative), luminaries to commemorate loved ones, a remembrance wall, Naloxone education and kits, booths with local information and resources, and much more. This event is free and open to the public. ***Swag and FREE meals will be provided to the first 100 attendees.*** The event begins at 6 PM and will end at 8:30 PM for clean-up.
Schedule of Events:
–Welcome & FCCBH’s Ambassadors for Hope Children’s Choir at 6:00 PM
–Naloxone Trainings at 6:30 PM & 7:00 PM
–Moment of Silence at 7:30 PM
–Luminary Lighting Ceremony at 8:00 PM
Rides will be available for FREE from Price, East Carbon, and Castle Dale (sponsored by Four Corners Community Behavioral Health and Carbon Medical Service Association). For more information, please visit facebook.com/usuHEART/ or overdoseday.com/huntington/. You can learn more about IOAD and the harsh realities of overdose from the IOAD website.
By holding an event this year, the people of Carbon and Emery Counties are joining themselves to a global movement for understanding, compassion, and change.
“By coming together to remember those we have lost without stigma, we stand together to say that more needs to be done to end overdose in our community,” said Ashley Yaugher with USU Extension. Mersades Morgan with USARA and Michelle Ward with SEUDH will provide Narcan trainings at the event, and said that “we encourage members of the community with lived experience to come to our event and to stand in solidarity with the men and women who have been personally affected by overdose.”
We hope you will join us the evening of August 31st at Huntington State Park. To see a full list of the IOAD 2024 events currently planned around the world can be found at: overdoseday.com/events-2024/