Recovery Awareness Day honors lives lost to drug overdose
LEXINGTON, Ky (WTVQ)- A local non-profit is celebrating those in recovery from drug addictions while also honoring those who have been lost.
Voices of Hope held its annual Recovery Awareness Day Saturday at Jacobson Park.
If you look across the banners, you’ll see hundreds of faces representing lives lost to drug overdose. It’s an emotional sight for Cynthia Robinson.
cynthia robinson/ program assistant, voices of hope “It’s very emotional subject of course to anybody that has recovered because we made it out and they didn’t,” says Robinson, who is the Program Assistant for Voices of Hope.
Robinson has lost friends to drug overdose. She was also an addict.
“For 15 years i was an active addiction and I used to dream about stuff like this. So here I am doing it today. I’m planning events, I’m getting to watch this community come together. It’s hope, it’s everything,” says Robinson.
Saturday marked what used to be the annual Overdose Awareness Day. It’s now been deemed “Recovery Awareness Day”, an event aimed at celebrating those in recovery, and honor those whose lives have been lost to addictions. It includes speakers, a resource fair, kids activities, and a way for families to honor their loved ones.
“It’s also important for us to acknowledge that that doesn’t mean we are leaving behind families who are grieving loss. People come to be impacted by drugs and drug use in a lot of different ways and we want to make a space that is welcoming for all those people and certainly that’s what this day is,” says Alex Elswick.
Elswick is the co-founder of Voices of Hope, which offers recovery support, advocacy and educational programs to those in recovery.
“We are a recovery community organization, which means that we are the hub for recovery services in our community. So often times, people will have the experience where they’ll go to treatment for 30 days, and they’ll get lots of good resources and build lots of important relationships, but then they have to leave them behind. And voices of hope is a place you can get those resources and you can build those relationships for life and have life-long support for your recovery,” says Elswick.
Alex himself- recently reaching a milestone in his own recovery.
“September 13th, 2023- I just celebrated 10 years in recovery. I haven’t been a person whose counted days a lot lately, so I didn’t think it would be that meaningful to me. It’s been really meaningful to me. Its been an opportunity to reflect on how my life has changed, but also how my community has changed. And the way my community understands addiction and the way my community responds to try to help people in recovery. And I’m so thankful for that,” says Elswick.
A day set aside to be there for those who need help most.
“People don’t understand, they feel very alone. And they don’t think that there’s a way out of addictions. So we want to show them by bringing everyone together that it is possible,” says Robinson.
