In what has become an annual community tradition, residents gathered at the Oceanside Library on Aug. 27 for the Oceanside SAFE Coalition’s sixth annual Overdose Awareness Day, an evening dedicated to remembering loved ones lost to overdoses, supporting surviving families and raising awareness of substance use and addiction.
Although the event traditionally takes place on Schoolhouse Green, rain forced organizers to move it inside this year. Despite the last-minute change, they said the event drew one of its largest turnouts to date.
“It was phenomenal,” said Ali Eriksen, project coordinator for the coalition. “It was such a beautiful, moving and incredible event. It was one of the biggest turnouts that we’ve had.”
The gathering brought together students, parents, teachers, families, local officials and community organizations for an evening that combined remembrance with education and resources for those affected by substance use.
The Kiwanis Club of Oceanside helped organize the event, along with Mount Sinai South Nassau and the Oceanside Library.
While the weather prevented the coalition from holding its traditional flower-planting ceremony at Schoolhouse Green, organizers found a way to preserve the symbolic element of the event.
Inside the library, attendees were invited to decorate small planters and plant bulbs to take home. The activity gave families an opportunity to create something living in memory of those they had lost.
“We were able to still kind of have that flower and blooming in the spirit,” Eriksen said.
Attendees also painted rocks, with some choosing to donate their creations to the rock garden at Oceanside’s Luis G. Alvarez Memorial Park, while others took them home to create memorial spaces of their own.
The event also included resource tables manned by representatives of Integrity Treatment Centers, Mount Sinai Counseling Center and Mount Sinai South Nassau, giving attendees a chance to learn about treatment, counseling and other support services.
One of the most meaningful additions to this year’s event was a memorial table organized by Lori Martin, a new member of the SAFE Coalition who got involved with the group last year. Martin, a 73-year-old retired nurse, lost her son, Derrick, three and a half years ago after he relapsed following treatment in rehabilitation. He was 36.
Martin collected photos of people from the community who had died of overdoses and displayed them alongside painted seashells bearing their names and ages.
“I just felt like it was a labor of love,” she said.
Martin added that she believes education is one of the most important tools in combating addiction and preventing future overdoses. “I think that parents, as well as children, need to be educated in the dangers of even trying something,” she said. “It’s as simple as that — one try and you could get addicted.”
She also stressed the importance of recognizing the connection between mental health and substance use, noting that anxiety, depression and other struggles can move young people to turn to drugs as a way to cope.
Eriksen said that the gathering demonstrated the importance of creating a space where surviving family members can connect with others who understand their experiences.
“Our vision always is to make sure that this event is for surviving families and friends,” she said. “We want to make sure that we’re creating a safe place for people to come and honor the memory of the people that they’ve lost and try to turn that into a new beginning, and put it back into the community to prevent this happening again.”
Nick Wollweber, who has been involved with the coalition for four years, donated food from Dario’s, in West Hempstead, where he works as an assistant manager. Wollweber, 22, lost his older brother, Joe, to a drug overdose in 2019.
For Nick, sharing his brother’s photo and story at the memorial table was a meaningful part of the evening. “[It] was very healing for me,” he said. “Sharing and openness helps destroy the stigma around mental health and substance abuse.”
Although the ceremony was held indoors, Eriksen said that the coalition still plans to plant flowers at Schoolhouse Green once the weather cooperates.
For organizers and families, however, the evening’s most important message remained the same: Those affected by addiction and overdose are not alone, and remembering those who have died can become part of an effort to prevent future loss.
“Finding that village of other people that have been through what you’ve been through, no one’s going to understand the way that village will,” Eriksen said. “We want to make a place for people to connect like that.”
