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NATICK – On Monday, August 29, just a couple of days before International Opioid Overdose Awareness Day, volunteers installed 2,290 flags in front of First Congregational Church in downtown Natick.
Each flag represents a life lost to the opioid overdose last year in Massachusetts.
The display is striking and was created by SOAR Natick volunteers
Formed in 2014, SOAR (Supporting Outreach and Addiction Recovery) is a Natick-based organization which began as a support group for parents with children suffering from opioid addiction. Later, SOAR began working on outreach activities to educate the community about opioid addiction and to bring awareness to this horrible epidemic.
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“SOAR has made successful impact in our community with events and services. SOAR has also provided specific assistance to members of our community who are actively working on their own recovery and in addition, SOAR has provided ongoing support to individuals and families who have lost someone to this disease,” according to its website.
Along with the purple flags, is a sea of red flags too. These flags are personalized flags for individuals who lost someone to opioids.
“Each flag a reminder of a person lost to an over dose last year in Massachusetts. Each flag also represents thousands of family and friends who are forever changed due to this continuing epidemic. Thank you to all who came together as a community to help us with this beautiful poignant display. Huge shout out to The First Congregational Church in Natick for their continued support of our project,” wrote SOAR on social media.
The flags in Natick will be on display through September 11.
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September is National Recovery Month. The goal is to educate Americans that substance use treatment and mental health services can enable those with a mental and/or substance use disorder to live a healthy and rewarding life.
Recovery Month has adopted the 2022 theme of “Every Person. Every Family. Every Community.” as its permanent tagline. The 2022 Recovery Month observance will work to promote and support new evidence-based treatment and recovery practices, the emergence of a strong and proud recovery community, and the dedication of service providers and community members across the nation who make recovery in all its forms possible.
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Petroni Media Company photos for SOURCE
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MetroWest Medical Center