Skip to main content

Strick signs proclamation for recovery awareness

On Monday, Aug. 30, Mayor Richard Strick signed a proclamation recognizing National Overdose Awareness Day and National Recovery Awareness Month. Featured are (bottom row, from left) Bethanie Burns, Brittany Renkenberger, Stephinie Eckinger, Strick, Jade Glover and Tamara Randall, as well as (top row, from left) Sydney Kent and Matt Pflieger, all of whom were present for the reading.
On Monday, Aug. 30, Mayor Richard Strick signed a proclamation recognizing National Overdose Awareness Day and National Recovery Awareness Month. Featured are (bottom row, from left) Bethanie Burns, Brittany Renkenberger, Stephinie Eckinger, Strick, Jade Glover and Tamara Randall, as well as (top row, from left) Sydney Kent and Matt Pflieger, all of whom were present for the reading. Photo by Katelynn Farley

On Monday, Aug. 30, Mayor Richard Strick signed a proclamation recognizing that Tuesday, Aug. 31, is National Overdose Awareness Day and that the month of September is National Recovery Awareness Month.

Representatives from Place of Grace, which is a transitional house for women leaving jail, as well as Ground Zero Community Center, a community center on the south side of Huntington, as well as a few other community members were present for the reading of the proclamation.

Before Strick began, he offered those present a chance to talk about how they had been doing and reminded them of the importance behind checking in on one another when times are tough and support is needed.
After having the chance to discuss how they were doing mentally and emotionally, Strick also asked those who were gathered to introduce themselves as they were comfortable.

Bethanie Burns, from Place of Grace, was specifically asked how the community center was coming along since its opening this summer. She shared that things were going slowly, but that they were going well. She described some of the programs needs and goals, and also shared that the community center hosted a women’s group that served as space for women of all ages to share what they had been going through and what they were currently dealing with in life. Burns reported that several of the women are mothers or sisters of people who had died of addiction and overdose and that they were able to share their grief over having lost loved ones.

Representatives from Place of Grace ranged from those who run the program to those who are in or have graduated from the program. They spoke of their personal experiences with Place of Grace and also of the need to have other outlets such as Ground Zero to work with and help the community.

After everyone was able to introduce themselves and have a chance to talk about things, Strick read the proclamation. The proclamation included information on a national and state level, as well as a local level. One portion of the proclamation stated that drug overdose deaths have been on the rise for two decades in Indiana, and that national overdose rates have risen 450 percent in that same time period - and that the overdose epidemic has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the end, the proclamation read:

“Now therefore I, Mayor Richard Strick, do hereby declare August 31, 2021, to be Overdose Awareness Day and September to be Recovery Awareness Month in Huntington. We take this time to remember the lives lost to addiction and to stand beside and mourn with families who have lost loved ones. We encourage all Huntington residents to show extraordinary grace, care and compassion toward these families and those who struggle with addiction, and we look forward to innovative, collaborative and treatment-focused options that our community is working to put in place to help these families and individuals.”