I still mother them….

Today I realized we are about 111 hours away from Overdose Awareness Day Delaware.

And I am excited.

I know that might sound like a strange word to use when you are talking about a day that exists because far too many people have died. But Overdose Awareness Day has never been only about death to me. It is about the people we have lost, absolutely. It is about saying their names and making sure they are never reduced to a number or a statistic. But it is also about the people who are still here. The people in recovery. The people still struggling. The families. The people doing the work every single day. And the people who simply show up because they care.

Someone shared something recently that said they don’t really have a favorite place, they have favorite people, and wherever those people are becomes their favorite place.

That is exactly how I feel about Saturday.

So many of my favorite people are going to be in one place.

Mars will be doing the music. Domenica will be speaking. Colonel Jamie Leonard from the New Castle County Police Department will be speaking. John Waters will be sharing his spoken word. Sheed and Matt Anderson are doing a skit, and Matt will be hosting the entire day. We will have live Narcan training and distribution, and 98 exhibitors who have chosen to spend their Saturday showing our community what resources, recovery, harm reduction, treatment, support, and hope actually look like.

And then there is Babita, who apparently heard “Kids Corner” and decided we needed an entire Fall Festival. 😂 She has free arts and crafts and activities planned, and Dori will be there doing free face painting. I love that families can bring their children and not have to keep reaching into their pockets all day. That has always mattered to us.

Our Overdose Awareness Day T-shirts are already on sale through our website and will be available at the event too. And at the end of this enormous, beautiful, emotional day, we will all come together for the release of 20 doves.

That part gets me.

Because underneath all the music, laughter, conversations, resources and hugs is the reason we started doing this in the first place.

There are people who should be standing beside us who aren’t.

There are empty chairs at kitchen tables. There are birthdays that still come every year. There are moms, dads, children, siblings, grandparents and friends who learned that grief doesn’t disappear just because the calendar keeps moving.

We remember them Saturday.

But we also celebrate every single person who is still here.

And somewhere in the middle of all of this is Becky, our Overdose Awareness Day Chairperson, dotting every i, crossing every t and attempting the nearly impossible task of herding approximately 9,000 wet cats. 😂 There are a million tiny things that have to happen before 11:00 Saturday morning, and she has carried an enormous amount of that load. I am incredibly grateful for her.

Even Mother Nature appears to be cooperating with us this year. ☀️

So today, with about 111 hours to go, I am thinking less about everything still sitting on the to-do list and more about what that park is going to look like Saturday.

People who have lost someone standing beside people celebrating years in recovery.

People with decades in recovery talking to someone who may have hours.

Police officers beside harm reduction workers.

Treatment providers beside families.

Children painting and getting their faces painted.

Music playing.

Stories being told.

Narcan being put into people’s hands.

Ninety-eight exhibitors saying, in 98 different ways, you don’t have to do this alone.

And eventually, 20 doves rising into the sky.

Maybe I don’t have a favorite place either.

Maybe I just have favorite people.

And Saturday, a whole lot of them are going to be together.

I cannot wait. 💜