Healthy Communities of Clinton County Coalition unveiled a memorial wall for the victims of opioid overdoses at the Overdose Awareness Day event held Friday night at Veterans Park in downtown Frankfort.
“We wanted to start with these families and put their loved ones on a wall so people remember that all of the victims are someone’s son or daughter, mother or father or sister or brother,” said Healthy Communities Executive Director Lorra Archibald. “We do want people to remember them for not what they did, but that the people left behind are the real victims of the overdose.”
The wall had five individuals names, picture and a description of their lives. At the top of the wall is an inscription which says “No More”, which stands for “Not One More Opioid Related Event.”
Archibald added the wall was made to add more names.
“I’m sure it’s over 20 in the last couple of year that could go on there,” said Archibald. “Any family interested in putting a loved one on can contact us at 659-6063 and complete a form and a release.”
She added they don’t have to keep adding names to the wall.
Archibald said the idea for the wall came from when they visited the National Opioid Conference in Atlanta earlier this year.
“On their wall were little tablets or pills for everyone that was lost and we really wanted it to be more personal than that,” said Archibald. “We wanted to put a real face to this issue and crisis in our community.”
Archibald was asked if progress is being made in this battle.
“I think it’s been slow progress, but there’s progress and that’s a lot more than most communities can say,” said Archibald. “I think the substance use disorder team that’s been formed and the drug and alcohol coalition have made a lot of strides in battling this deadly use disorder.”