Not One More plans a candlelight vigil
Not One More Pittsburgh Chapter and the Washington Drug and Alcohol Commission Inc. will hold a candlelight vigil Thursday evening at the Washington County Courthouse to help reduce the stigma associated with drug and alcohol addiction, which prevents many from reaching out for life-saving treatment.
A rally will begin at 5:30 p.m., when walkers will march from Turning Point and City Mission to the courthouse.
Registration will start at 6 p.m. at the courthouse. The vigil will be held from 7 to 9 p.m., when photos of those who lost their lives to addiction will be shown and balloons in their memory will be released in what one gentleman who has worked in the recovery community with Alcoholics Anonymous for more than 20 years calls “very powerful.”
“It is very compelling,” he said.
Speakers will include Washington County Coroner Tim Warco; Becky Kallal-Perkovich, a parent who lost a child to addiction; and Kristen Trussa, who is in Long-Term Recovery.
The Pittsburgh Chapter of Not One More was founded by Laura Propst, who has two children in their 20s who are recoving heroin addicts.
“In 2009, my husband and I began our journey dealing with the addiction of our two beautiful children to heroin, then 19 and 20,” Propst wrote on the Not One More webstie, www.notonemorepgh.net.
“When we discovered that they had been using heroin, no words can describe how we felt. We had teenagers who played sports, had fun with friends and made good grades. They worked hard and had dreams of college.
“All of a sudden, we were the parents of two heroin addicts within a year of high school graduation and their first year of college. Learning this was extremely devastating. We had no idea that heroin was so available to them, so cheap and so easy to obtain.”
Today, her children are “enjoying a life in recovery, but the threat of relapse will always be there,” she wrote. “My husband and I are very lucky that our kids are alive. Many deal every day with the reality of having a child or loved one lost to this disease and what addiction can do to their life and family.”
In addition to the slide show, the names and a brief biography of those who have died will be read.
“These deaths we are seeing up close are decent, decent people,” the AA spokesman said, noting that more young men and women are becoming so addicted to the pain medications they are prescribed for injuries that they are turning to much stronger – and lethal – drugs when they are unable to cope with the withdrawal.
“These are parents in grief who are reaching out to others,” he said, referring to Not One More.
Even those in recovery continue to be at risk, he said, recalling the death of a 27-year-old – who had been clean for three years – after his co-workers convinced him to have a beer to celebrate his promotion.
“He died that night. They inadvertently killed him. It was absolutely heartbreaking.”