International Overdose Awareness Day, held every Aug 31, is meant to raise awareness and remember lives lost to the toxic drug crisis. One of the events held on Monday in Sudbury was organized by the Go-Give Project. Visibility was an objective. Hundreds of participants dressed in purple and many carried large pictures of loved ones or white crosses. The group walked from the York Street parking lot across from Bell Park to the Crosses for Change memorial downtown, then on to Carleton Park, the future site of the city’s permanent opioid memorial. “We all came together. We wore purple. And when you see the sea of people walking down Paris Street, it really puts a face value, a tangible feeling of what we’re facing here in our community,” said Evie Ali, executive director of the GoGive Project. At least a dozen people spoke about their personal experience – loved ones who battled addictions, outreach workers helping others or those who overcame their own addictions. “It’s important for me to tell my story because it shows that people can recover. It shows that nobody is too far gone to get clean and to change their life,” said Hannah. She told the crowd she spent nine years addicted to drugs before working through her issues. Hannah has been clean for a number of years. “I just want families out there to know there’s hope. Don’t give up. Keep the battle going,” said Monique Gregoire, who lost her son, Cory, in March to opioid poisoning. Gregoire and her husband, Marcel DesRuisseau, wanted to honour Cory and help reduce the stigma around drug addiction. “People see an addict and they see a bad person and are not willing to help because (they think) they’re just going to steal from me. So, there’s not much help for them,” DesRuisseau said. The drug crisis still has a tight grip on Greater Sudbury. Ali said Overdose Awareness Day helps raise awareness and education, as well as honour and remember lives already lost. “There are far too many people for me to name in one short interview, but the impact is profound,” she said. “Not just for the people and the families but also the people living in community and the people doing this work.”
