Community pauses to remember victims of substance abuse

Next to Yorktown Town Hall and behind Patriot Skate Park, the Drug Epidemic Awareness Memorial serves as a poignant symbol of remembrance in town.

The chain-link fence, adorned with locks memorializing loved ones lost to drugs, also features signage and a QR code that links to resources.

On Thursday, Sept. 25, at 6 p.m., the memorial will serve as a gathering place when community members honor the lives lost to substance abuse. The ceremony will feature speakers, along with the reading of names and “forever ages” of those memorialized with locks on the fence. Attendees are invited to add locks in memory of loved ones.

“This is going to be a very thoughtful event in remembering the lives that have been lost,” Executive Director of the Alliance for Safe Kids Liz Talbert told the Town Board during its Sept. 16 meeting. “Many of them are very young lives.”

She added that she knows several people in the community who spend time at the fence, a reflection of its meaning.

“That’s where they’re connecting with their loved one,” she said.

If it rains, the ceremony will be held indoors at Town Hall.

For those who do not have a lock but would like a name read, submissions can be sent to deamyorktown@gmail.com. Additional information, including how to obtain a lock, is available on the Drug Epidemic Awareness Memorial Facebook page.