By Aaron Mahoney (@Mahones93 on Twitter)

Community in Crisis walk to focus on local opioid crisis

Mar 5, 2018 | 6:00 AM

LETHBRIDGE – In response to the recent fentanyl and carfentanil crisis in the local community, an awareness and memorial walk will be taking place on Monday, Mar. 5 beginning at Lethbridge City Hall.

A group called Communities in Unity organized the walk after more than 50 community members were reported to have overdosed in one week.

One of the event organizers, Abby Morning Bull, says they felt the need to act, inform and bring the community together to face these issues.

“There’s been a tremendous outpouring of support since we announced the event. A lot of people in the community who haven’t been active on this front in the past are stepping forward and saying what can I do, how can I help, and I’ll be there on Monday,” Morning Bull said.

The walk will start at 6 p.m., and the route will proceed from City Hall to the pergola in Galt Gardens.

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Once at Galt Gardens, they will be hosting a candlelight vigil in memory of those lost and estimate the vigil will begin around 6:45 p.m.

The walk will be known as “Community in Crisis – Coming Together.”

Morning Bull says they’ve received tremendous support from Lethbridge Police, the City of Lethbridge, ARCHES, and members of Kainai agencies.

“It’s truly been an outpour of support from a bunch of different people.”

A number of community leaders, first responders, family members, self-advocates and other speakers will be sharing their thoughts and experiences, and Morning Bull wants to invite other members of the community to join them.

“When there’s a crisis people feel vulnerable, and there’s a need to have a sense of community so we’re hoping to be able to draw people in to build that,” she continued. “We want to show that there is support for people who don’t know where to go to find it.”

The grassroots-based group made up of individuals in addictions advocacy, addictions treatment, law enforcement, education, as well as affected family, friends and self-advocates have been trying to spread the message over the past week.

“We’ve done outreach through social media, through the old school strategy of putting up posters and asking community members face to face to join us,” Morning Bull added.

Their hope, according to Morning Bull, is to build bridges between service providers and the people accessing services, equip people with tools to cope and to open a dialogue in the community around opioid addictions.

“This is just the first event, we’d like to have follow up events afterwards and we’re just waiting on venues and trainers being available, but we’ll talk about that on Monday if there’s confirmation.”