Overdose Vigil.
A candlelight vigil to remember those we have lost to fatal drug overdose.
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When: Friday, August 3rd, 2007 Rain Date: Friday, August 10th, 2007 Time: 7:30 p.m. *Feel free to arrive anytime between 7:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Where: Lynn Commons at the Gazebo in Lynn, MA For More Information or Directions: Phone: (781) 592-0243 E-mail: mwheeler@cabhealth.org adelaney@cabhealth.org
Sponsored By: CAB Health and Recovery Services Inc., Healthy Streets Outreach Program Not One More Anonymous Death N.O.M.A.D. Overdose Prevention Project
***All those who attend you are welcome to bring photos and remembrances of your loved ones, we will provide a table to display them. | Overdose Vigil
Several years ago, a few people from the needle exchange programs in Boston and Cambridge decided that an overdose vigil would bring to light the enormous number of deaths from fatal drug overdose. As providers, a vigil would also give our clients and us a place to grieve the loss of our friends, families and community members.
On one of the coldest nights in the winter of 2003, about 20 people turned up in front of the Cambridge City Hall. We read the names of people we knew, sang a song and read poems, told stories and had a candle lighting ceremony and a moment of silence. None of our candles stayed lit in the freezing cold, our signs all fell over in the wind, but everyone huddled together. The moment was like no other. The evening was important and powerful.
Two years later, in 2005, one of the organizers of that event came to work for CAB Health and Recovery Services’ Outreach Office in Lynn. Every day in and around Lynn, there were reports of people dying from drug overdose. Based on her experiences in Cambridge, she suggested to the rest of the staff that we have an overdose vigil in Lynn. The entire outreach staff was committed to the project, and we began to make plans to organize the area’s first overdose vigil.
In August 2005, about 250 people attended the candle lit vigil on Lynn Common. In 2006, the vigil’s second year, attendance was just as high.
Now, we hope to make the Lynn vigil an annual event to give a voice to those we have lost and to bring some peace to those who are still with us. The vigil creates a space to grieve and remember—and to offset the view that drug-overdose victims deserve their death, that they had it coming, that it’s just one more “junkie.”
For the previous two years people have designed prayer cards at no cost for the event, people have donated their time, money, equipment and stories to the vigil event to make it a truly moving experience.
Until this problem goes away we will stand with candles lit for the people we love and lost.
Thank You.
CAB Outreach Staff |
"In me nothing is extinguished or forgotten. My love survives through your memory. Peace be with you."