LYNN — Members of the Recovery Exchange support center gathered at Red Rock Park Thursday evening to observe National Overdose Awareness Day in remembrance of those who died of opioid overdoses.
People in recovery and those who have lost friends and family members to addiction shared their experiences with each other. At the event, people wrote the names of their loved ones who died of opioid overdoses on paper lanterns and balloons, which they then released into the sky.
“Our goal is to acknowledge and recognize those people that were lost to addiction and didn’t have the opportunity to get clean,” Recovery Exchange Program Director Kim Patterson said. “Families are mourning, so we want them to know that their loved ones matter.”
School Committee member Lennin Peña has been in recovery for the past few years. According to him, the country’s opioid crisis needs to be discussed more in order to eliminate the stigma attached to it.
“We’re losing generations of kids and people to the opioid epidemic,” Peña said. “We need to start talking about it and finding solutions for it. I’m a big believer in second chances and I got another chance to give back to the community and my family.”
Peña said that the Recovery Exchange is one of the biggest support communities in the city. He added that the center helps people in recovery receive the support they need to keep working toward getting better.
“This program is helping people know that there’s still a lot of recovery support available,” Peña said. “It’s trying to get rid of the stigma and show people that when you have the right support, you can become responsible and productive members of the community.”
The Recovery Exchange is a peer-recovery support center that was opened by Spectrum Health Systems at 35 Exchange St. two months ago. It is designed to bring people in recovery together and teach them basic skills so they can eventually give back to their communities.
“We involve our members in things that strengthen them,” Patterson said. “They get to make the decisions on what kind of activities we have here. So when they make those decisions, they show up, they participate in setting up and cleaning, and they take real pride in the community and in the center and whatever activities we bring to them.”
