About 25 people gathered at City Park for to raise a flag in recognition of International Overdose Awareness Day, which takes place annually on Aug. 31.
The Monday event was organized by the SOS Berks Opioid Coalition in partnership with the city. The flag will fly for seven days in honor of those who have lost their lives to an overdose.
Officials said speakers included state Sen. Judy Schwank; Berks County Commissioner Michael Rivera; Mayor Eddie Moran; Dr. William Santoro, chief of addiction medicine, Tower Health; and Kathleen Strain of the Partnership to End Addiction.
Strain, a member of SOS Berks who lost a nephew to an overdose, raised the flag at the close of the ceremony.
“Here in Pennsylvania we’re losing someone every two hours,” Strain said in a release. “The hour we have spent here speaking, 13 people across the United States have died.”
Schwank spoke of the damaging stigma associated with substance use disorder that can keep people from seeking treatment and force families who have lost loved ones to suffer in silence. Events like the flag raising help break the stigma, she said.
“Here in Berks County we’ve done a lot to end that stigma,” she said. “We don’t turn our backs on people who need us the most.”
International Overdose Awareness Day is the world’s largest annual campaign to end overdose, remember without stigma those who have died and acknowledge the grief of family and friends left behind, according to overdoseday.com. This year’s theme is “Together we can.”
Rivera, who is co-chair of the SOS Berks Opioid Coalition, referred to that theme.
“We are here today because we stand together with you,” he said. “We are here today because you matter and we support you.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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