Overdose Awareness Day observed at Wild Things Park
3 min read
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Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Debbie Engel speaks to a crowd in Wild Things Park Wednesday, during the International Overdose Awareness ceremony. Engel lost her son, Louis Phillips Jr., to drug overdose in 2019 and attends monthly support group meetings with other mothers who have also lost children to addiction.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
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Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Joey Pagano shares his journey from heroin addict to social worker during the International Overdose Awareness event in Wild Things Park Wednesday evening. Pagano’s first book on overcoming addiction is slated for publication within the next year.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
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Doug Bush addresses attendees during the International Overdose Awareness event at Wild Things Park Wednesday evening. Bush represented the Washington City Mission at the ceremony, which concluded with a butterfly release in memory of loved ones lost to addiction.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
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June Chappel claps as her friend Debbie Engel concludes a speech during the International Overdose Awareness event in Wild Things Park Wednesday. More than 100 individuals who have lost someone to addiction attended the ceremony, which concluded with a butterfly release.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
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Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Volunteers from the Washington County Opioid Overdose Coalition pass out butterflies before the release ceremony. Attendees let the butterflies loose inside Wild Things Park as a tribute to loved ones lost to addiction.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
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Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Miyah Lloyd shows off her butterfly to Carlie and Karter Steuernagel ahead of the release Wednesday in Wild Things Park. The trio was among more than a hundred people who turned out for the annual International Overdose Awareness event.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
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A butterfly swoops overhead, and folks hurry to release their own butterflies and capture the magic on their smart phones during the International Overdose Awareness event Wednesday evening. The ceremony, held at Wild Things Park, is a tribute to loved ones lost to addiction.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
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International Overdose Awareness event attendees look on as a butterfly takes to the skies Wednesday inside Wild Things Park. The event was hosted by the Washington County Opioid Overdose Coalition, in memory of lives lost to addiction.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
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Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Pat Caruso smiles as Rhonda DiBello plucks a butterfly from Caruso’s head during the release ceremony in Wild Things Park. Caruso, of Washington, lost her son to overdose five years ago, and this was her first time at an International Overdose Awareness event.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
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Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Pat Caruso smiles as Rhonda DiBello plucks a butterfly from Caruso’s head during the release ceremony in Wild Things Park. Caruso, of Washington, lost her son to overdose five years ago, and this was her first time at an International Overdose Awareness event.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
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Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Jason Dillon coaxes his butterfly out of his hands and into the sky during the release ceremony at Wild Things Park Wednesday. Dillon lost his younger brother to addiction, and is himself in recovery.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
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Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Emma Affleck, 16, is the butterfly whisperer. Affleck, of Washington, was delighted when butterflies landed on her following the release ceremony Wednesday, which she attended with her stepdad Marty Puchi.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
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Jason Dillon helps a butterfly along during the release ceremony Wednesday, as part of the International Overdose Awareness event at Wild Things Park. Dillon, of Washington, lost his younger brother to addiction and released a butterfly in his honor.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Washington County Opioid Overdose Coalition marked International Overdose Awareness Day on Wednesday with an event that honored those who died from drug overdoses in the past year and provided resources for those battling drug addiction.
The event, held at Washington Wild Things Park, concluded with a butterfly release.
Nearly three dozen providers ranging from Washington County Department of Human Services and its agencies to recovery centers and churches came together to offer services and resources.
International Overdose Awareness Day honors the lives lost to drug overdose, acknowledges the grief of their family and friends, and raises awareness of drug overdose, which WDAC executive director Cheryl Andrews called “one of the world’s worst public health crises.”
Inside the stadium, the names of overdose victims scrolled on the Wild Things score board as family members who lost loved ones, people in recovery, and their supporters gathered.
Andrews noted the county’s efforts to combat the opioid crisis, including the formation in 2016 of the Washington County Opioid Overdose Coalition, a group that consists of representatives from public health, public safety, human services, law enforcement, probation, the courts, EMS and hospitals, which collects data and develops a strategic plan to address the opioid problem.
“Our mission is to eliminate overdose, eliminate stigma associated with substance use disorder, and ensure every patient has access to and support throughout the recovery process,” said Andrews.
Washington County President Judge John DiSalle, who serves as co-chair of the coalition, told the group, “We’re all in this together.”
“(Drug addiction) affects all walks of life, all professions, all socioeconomic families. It can happen to anybody, and we’re here to hopefully keep working on ending the stigma of addiction,” said DiSalle. “We are all in this together … we have to help each other.”
Joey Pagano, a licensed social worker for SPHS Care Center and a recovering heroin addict, shared his recovery story and encouraged people to never give up on those battling addiction.
Pagano described how he overdosed on heroin at his mother’s home and that a paramedic saved his life by administering three doses of Narcan, a drug that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose.
“I didn’t get clean that day, but I was given a harm reduction drug that saved my life, and the seeds of hope were planted that day,” said Pagano, who called Narcan a lifesaving tool.
“My life got turned around. I’m here as a survivor. Our struggles don’t define us, they refine us,” he said.
Debbie Engel, whose son, Louis Phillips Jr., died from a drug overdose on Sept. 12, 2019, shared her son’s story and her journey toward healing after his death.
She said she has found comfort from a support group for mothers who have lost children to addiction.
“My first meeting, there were three of us there. We talked about our kids with no judgment and we cried a lot,” said Engel. “And it helped … over the last two years, we have become sisters, sisters in sorrow. And our sorrow makes us strong. We can do anything with each other’s love and support.”
To close the ceremony, those who attended gently opened tiny envelopes containing monarch butterflies and released them into the sky.
“As we release these butterflies, it’s a reminder that those that we love and that we lost to addiction, their spirits are now flying free,” said Doug Bush, of Washington City Mission. “We are calling on you to continue to love each other, to pray for each other, and to support each other.”
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