A small group of Islanders gathered at the seawall on Beach Road in Oak Bluffs on Thursday, August 31, to remember those who died from an overdose.
The annual Luminaria at the Seawall event was put together by staff at the Red House Peer Recovery Support Center, and coincided with International Overdose Awareness Day.
Participants decorated paper bags with color and special messages like “Be Free” and “There is Hope” and “We do Recover,” before gathering at the seawall. A candle was placed inside each bag and then lit during a somber ceremony. Some of those gathered shared memories of people who had overdosed.
“We gathered tonight to honor and remember those souls that left this world too soon,” Stacy Wise said, a former coordinator at Red House and organizer of the Luminaria event. “Let us remember them as people that were so much more than the demons they faced, they were a source of inspiration and a reminder of the fragility of life.
“May we never forget the beautiful souls that we are here to honor today and may their struggles serve as a powerful reminder of the urgency to address the devastating impact of addiction in our society,” Wise said.
Organizers returned the following day to collect the bags.
Luminaria on the Vineyard coincided with similar remembrances held across the country and worldwide. In Boston, some 22,000 purple flags were placed on Boston Common representing the lives of Massachusetts residents lost to the opioid epidemic in the last decade.
A recent state report shows that six individuals on Martha’s Vineyard died from an opioid-related overdose in 2022 alone, one of the highest marks in the past 10 years on the Island.