Overdose Awareness Day event brings hope, help and free resources

The event was held Friday at the Herman Mihalich Memorial Boat Launch pavilion in Monessen.

Awareness, compassion and action.

In recognition of International Overdose Awareness Day, which is Aug. 31, families paid tribute to their loved ones Friday afternoon in Monessen.

Hosted by the Westmoreland Drug and Alcohol Commission at the Herman Mihalich Memorial River Launch pavilion, the third annual event had around 50 people, was decorated in purple and signs were hung of the faces and names Westmoreland County has lost over the years.

Director of Clinical and Case Management Services with the commission Bre Minardi said the event was to recognize those they have lost and to spread awareness about addiction of all kinds as well as those who have come out on the outside.

Westmoreland Drug and Alcohol Commission Executive Director Elizabeth Comer said that they lost 81 people in 2024 due to overdose, and 81 purple flags were displayed to represent them. In the county, they have lost 20 individuals this year.

“It is really moving and an honor that all of you are here today,” Comer said. “To say this is an epidemic is an understatement as this continues. It really takes a village to make change. We all have a responsibility to advocate for individuals who have active substance use and addiction. That’s our job as a community, and I think that’s why we are all here.”

The goal of International Overdose Awareness Day (IOAD) is to bring a global community together to take action on overdose and to spread the message about addictions.

Formed to combat the ongoing opioid epidemic in the area, the Mon Valley Opioid Coalition (MVOC) is also part of the Westmoreland Drug and Alcohol Commission – uniting the Mon Valley to ensure the longterm health, safety and well-being of individuals in the region.

The commission is based in Monessen, according to Comer, because the area is a “very under-served community.” She said that it’s important to give back, and that they have great partnerships with different local organizations.

Comer added that there is a huge epidemic going on with every type of addiction that needs to be talked about more because when people are more open, they can effectively make change.

“We are also here to recognize those individuals’ lives that we have lost,” Comer said. “I think the most important point of what you all gather from here today is your voice, and how important your voice and your actions are and how it makes a difference. Remember how strong your voice is and how it can effectively make change.”

There are cases where people are recovering, and normalizing talking about addiction is important for people to receive adequate care and compassion, she said.

Some sponsors included Britelife Recovery, Southwest Behavioral Care, Inc., By George, Commissioner Doug Chew, Magisterial District Judge Wayne Vlasic and several others.

There was free food, drinks, ice cream and supplies/resources for addiction at the event, which includes narcan, safe medication storage bags, wound care kits and more.

“The ideology behind that is to try to save somebody, to keep them alive, to keep them engaged in treatment and services when they are ready to do so on their recovery journey,” Minardi said.

Tim Phillips, the director department of community relations and prevention for Westmoreland County, said addiction is a disease that is treatable and preventable. He said there needs to be more prevention and treatment out there to lower statistics and so people are not those statistics.

“It’s a sad state when we continue to have this public health crisis,” Phillips said. “We really gotta do whatever we can do, and we at the county now have the opioid settlement money, and we are trying to disperse it appropriately.

“I am optimistically concerned with the future because we are going to see a lot of (money) cuts,” he added. “The people that are going to these services are not going to be able to access them. I am afraid we are going to see an escalation of fatalities as well. It takes all of us working together in collaboration.”

Carmen Capozzi said he came out to the event to support and honor all of the families. His organization, Sage’s Army, was founded in 2012 after the tragic death of his son Sage as a result of a fatal overdose.

The event also had a guest speaker, Becky Garrow, who is currently in active recovery. Minardi said they wanted a speaker this year going through recovery to shows that people with addictions are just that — people.

A member of the Mon Valley recovery community and the Mon Valley Opioid Coalition – advocating for those with substance disorders – Garrow said it has been a lifelong process of struggling with addiction, and to try to not be one of the people hanging on the wall.

“I don’t know how I wasn’t one of these (pictures),” Garrow said with her kids by her side. “I don’t know how I was spared and none of you would want your purse near me. There was this void, this uselessness, this never being good enough inside of me that eventually led me down the path of substances, and it didn’t matter what the substance was.”

Garrow said her high school years were a complete depiction of what addiction does, and alcohol was her drug of choice at first. This led down the path of harder substances like heroin and more, where she found it to be a way to hide, and stayed away from hard substances for 13 years – even though she was still in active addiction to alcohol.

According to Garrow, she was in jail when she was pregnant with her third child, heavily addicted to heroin and cocaine, because the pain was so great she could not do it anymore. She eventually realized that she put herself in all her situations.

“One day, without a thought, I made that jump and I dove into the hardest run I ever had,” she said. “I don’t have to hide behind masks anymore, and I hid behind masks for my entire life not being about to be accepted for who I am until I did some real work on myself.”

Garrow said when she finally had enough courage to say she needed help, people like the ones who attended the event were there to help her. She said it is not anyone’s loved ones fault, and now, she works with recovering addicts who are forgotten.

“It wasn’t until I was ready to accept the help that I was able to get to where I am today,” Garrow said. “None of our loved ones, none of the people that we know that have overdosed and died deserved it, and sometimes society really makes it be like that. Not one of them wanted that.

“The pain of life is so overwhelming, especially in the beginning of getting clean, that death sounds okay,” she added. “None of us wanted to die. We don’t care if we do because the hell that we live in every day in active addiction is pure torture, and then we get to the otherside and we get clean. The work that each one of you does makes a difference.”