Four parallel tables rest underneath the Canal Market District pavilion in Newark, covered in picture frames that create a patchwork collage of photographs. Certain frames are straight-edged. Others are personalized with puffy paint writing. The frames hold images of mothers and fathers with children on their shoulders, people posing on their motorcycle, in their military uniform or simply smiling.
A woman in a black t-shirt and jeans walks up to the farthest table with a corkboard covered in photos. There’s no space left on the tables for the board. She leans the board against the table leg before she leaves.
Every frame represents someone who has died of an overdose.
The annual Overdose Awareness Rally, held on Aug. 28 this year, honors those who have died of an overdose or substance-use-related issue. It also serves a time for connection and healing for those doing overdose prevention work.
Tables and booths representing local resources and organizations lined each side of the Canal Market District, belonging to organizations such as Behavioral Healthcare Partners of Central Ohio, the Licking County Health Department, BrightView Treatment Center and United Way of Licking County.
In Licking County, reported overdose deaths in 2024 – the latest data available at the time of publication – were significantly lower than previous years, according to the Ohio Department of Health’s Mortality Database. Preliminary numbers from the ODH database indicate 28 people died due to an overdose in 2024 – down significantly from 2021, when overdose deaths peaked at 63. That number may be adjusted based on updated reports from the Licking County Coroner.
Read more: Overdose deaths are falling nationwide. Why?
Linda Mossholder, a volunteer with the Newark Homeless Outreach, is working to put a stop to fentanyl related overdoses. Under the main Canal Market pavilion, Mossholder distributed Naloxone Nasal Spray: an emergency treatment that bystanders can administer to reverse a potential opioid overdose.
“(Naloxone) is effective for people who might have overdosed on some type of opioid, or even if the drug has some fentanyl in it,” Mossholder said.
Mossholder also shares fentanyl test strips, which detect the presence of fentanyl in a substance. Test strips and the naloxone kits are available at the Outreach on the corner of East Main and Buena Vista Streets in Newark every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. She encourages everyone to take some.
“Somebody will say, ‘well, no, I’m not using drugs anymore,’” Mossholder said. “And I say, do you know anybody who is? Because it’s good to have.”
The primary goal of distributing these resources, according to Mossholder, is harm reduction. Or, in Mossholder’s words, to keep people alive.
“Because dead people don’t go into recovery,” Mossholder said.
Across the main pavilion, Ohio State University Professor David Ruderman prepared for a poetry reading. Ruderman sat perched on a stool in front of a microphone, guitar in hand. To the right of him stood a crowd of over a dozen members of the Licking County Day Reporting Program.
The Day Reporting Program is an alternative to incarceration that provides drug and alcohol counseling, GED classes and job placement assistance to program members. Also included in the program: Ruderman’s poetry writing workshop.
Read more: Writing and rewriting the self
In Ruderman’s class, members of the Day Reporting Program picked up their pens and jotted down their thoughts and personal ties to the overdose crisis. Ruderman then took to weaving those thoughts and personal stories together to form a poem. At the rally, Day Reporting members took turns approaching the microphone to read lines of the collective poem as Ruderman strummed his guitar.
“Dear mother, I miss your spirit, your comfort, the way you love me,” Ashley Givens read. “I miss your smile, your laugh. Now that you’re gone, I am blessed that I can look in the mirror and see you in me. Not only in my appearance, but I carry your loving, kind, genuine and loyal spirit.”
Between lines of poetry, Ruderman recounted the history of drug prohibition in the United States. Ruderman began with national history dating back to 1914, and then made the national local with a reference to the recent Newark ‘camping ban’ in his poem.
Ruderman said that the City Council of Newark passed the anti-camping ordinance despite overwhelming opposition from the public.
“Almost 100 testified against (the ordinance), It still passed,” Ruderman read from his poem.
Poem reader and Day Reporting member Tyler Frankenbery is about to finish the 12 steps of his program, so he may become a sponsor for others on their path to recovery. Frankenbery enjoys events like the Overdose Awareness Rally, so he can share what it’s like to let go of something that has controlled him for so long.
“There is life after addiction, you’re not always going to be identified as being an addict,” Frankenbery told The Reporting Project. “You can be something else, absolutely.”
Sarah Hauck, deputy director of RecoveryOhio, who was in attendance, helps lead the initiative under Governor Mike DeWine, which focuses on facilitating the state’s response to challenges surrounding substance and mental health issues.
Hauk told The Reporting Project that Overdose Awareness Day gives communities a specific day for remembrance and reflection on what we can do as a community, even in such grief.
However, concerns about funding for harm reduction and efforts to address substance use disorder have been raised since the increase in federal spending cuts.
Read more: Uncertainty around federal funds may hamper efforts to reduce overdose deaths
About one in five Medicaid beneficiaries has a substance use disorder, according to the 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
If congressional budget cuts are approved, Ohio stands to lose up to $37 billion in federal funding for Medicaid. Estimates leave 440,000 more Ohioans uninsured.
“We’re certainly [aware of] all the new changes, and we are looking into everything at the state house,” Hauck said.
After Ruderman’s poem, Lisa Gordon began to sing Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” in front of eager listeners. To her right sits a table filled with framed photographs of a young man in a tie-dye shirt, strumming a guitar.
Today, Gordon honors her late son through song. Gordon’s son, Corey, died at the age of 23 of a heroin overdose in April 2009. Corey was three months away from receiving his Bachelor’s in history from The Ohio State University before his fatal overdose. Corey had wanted to be a history teacher.
Corey taught himself guitar when he was 16. Music quickly permeated throughout the Gordon family, becoming a focal point for connection. The two would frequently perform together at open mics, but after Corey’s death, everything changed.
“There was a time when I wanted to give up music, when Corey first passed away, because him and I sang together. And when he left, when he earned his wings, I was like, ‘I’m done’, you know? And I did. I let a little bit of fear and stuff get inside me,” Gordon said. “But then one night, I felt like Corey just came to me and said, ‘Keep playing, keep singing.’ And so that’s how I come about the rallies, because I know if Corey was here, still with us, that he would be down here today, encouraging others. And so I kind of do this for him.”
For Newark Homeless Outreach Founder Trish Perry, this rally is about the people. She wants to put faces and names to humanize all the people who have lost their lives to the crisis, ensuring they are not forgotten. Like many present at the rally, Perry is personally impacted by the overdose crisis.
“11 years ago, my son’s girlfriend (Michelle Baker) died from an overdose,” Perry said. “I promised Michelle’s mom…I promised that I would do this until I die.”
Perry has since taken it upon herself to raise awareness about the crisis and advocate for policy changes that could save lives. The biggest change Perry hopes to see in the future is the introduction of a syringe service program, or SSP, into Licking County. An SSP can help prevent the spread of disease through proper disposal of used syringes. According to the Center for Disease Control, SSPs are cost effective, life saving and can connect people with substance use disorders to resources and treatment.
25 of Ohio’s 88 counties have SSPs according to Harm Reduction Ohio. Licking County does not have an SSP despite sharing borders with Franklin County and Muskingum County, both counties that already have these programs in place.
At this rally, where dozens of community resources line the Canal Market District, there is no doubt the county has made progress, Perry said. The people of Licking County made most of that progress possible, according to Perry.
“(It’s) the people who make it happen,” Perry said. “It ain’t the city. It ain’t nothing they do. It ain’t the government. It is the people that are boots on the ground.”
At the end of the event, attendees were invited to honor those who had died by writing their names on white and purple balloons. People proceeded across the street to the lawn beside the old Licking County Jail, as “Let It Be” by the Beatles played from the sound system.
With the sun just peaking out of the clouds after light rain, attendees released their balloon strings to dot the sky that represented parents, siblings, friends and mentors lost. Even as the balloons became distant against the horizon, those on the ground, if they squinted, could still see the purple and white against the blue sky.
Tyler Thompson and Maddie Luebkert write for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.