Candlelight vigil held to honor overdose victims
JACKSON, Tenn. — Community members want to bring more attention to a growing problem.
“We are honoring and celebrating International Overdose Awareness Day, which is every Aug. 31. The movement actually started in Australia and has moved to where it’s international,” said Sarah Mays, a coordinator for the Hybrid Lifeline Peer Project.
For organizers of the vigil, the number of overdose deaths is alarming.
“I’ve been doing this job for five years and the first couple of years I was doing it, I lost maybe five people to death by overdose,” said Dianne Sherrode, a coordinator for the Hybrid Lifeline Peer Project. “But since the pandemic in 2020, I’ve lost 103 to death by overdose.”
Mays says she wants the community to gain more knowledge on this problem.
“For me it means bringing awareness to the fact that overdose is another pandemic that we have throughout our world and bringing awareness to the fact that we have issues with overdoses and drug misuse,” she said.
Sherrode says preventing overdose deaths is what is really important.
“Is the number of people we can save just by raising awareness and bringing attention to what we need to do to inform our communities of how to take care of their children and inform their children of what is dangerous,” Sherrode said.
Local leaders are asking for help from the community for those affected by drug overdose.
“The City of Jackson is reaching out to other organizations so that we can work together, so that we can work on projects that will reach out to the families of people who are suffering from an overdose disease,” said City of Jackson Recreation and Parks Recreation Manager Bridgett Parham.
You can find more information and resources regarding overdoses and International Overdose Awareness Day here.
You can also find support through the West Tennessee Faith & Recovery Community and the Jackson Madison Prevention Coalition Facebook pages.
Stay up-to-date on news from across West Tennessee with the WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News app.
