BUFFALO, N.Y. — A sea of purple flags at Old County Hall symbolize 350 lives lost to addiction. They were remembered Friday, on the lawn of Old County Hall.
Kimberly Shelvin knows, firsthand, the effects of the opioid crisis. Friday, on the eve of International Opioid Awareness Day, she helped to spread awareness about the effects of addiction.
"I have my brother here, Dan Tran, my friends' little brother Jesse Weiner, my brother-in-law Aaron Fullbruck," Shelvin said.
Shelvin says her brother had his entire life ahead of him before he fell into addiction.
"My brother was an amazing person. He had his whole life together. He just got his real estate license, but unfortunately for him, he had an injury that led him to prescription pills, to painkillers, and people don't realize the addiction that comes with that," Shelvin said.
According to officials, on average, one person a day is dying as a result of an overdose in Erie County.
"In 2023, our county experienced the most overdoses its ever recorded: 435 deaths, and it includes opioid-related and non-opioid related," the commissioner of health, Dr. Gale Burstein, said.
The numbers continue to rise. So far in 2024, Erie Eounty has lost about 270 people due to suspected or confirmed drug overdoses.
For Ivette Chavez Gonzales, the fight to treat addiction is personal.
"I've been in recovery for nine years now. I was one of them. ... Half of these people I knew, and they were part of my community, so it's important to show up," Chavez said.
The fight continues. Recent money from the Opioid Settlement will jump start local substance abuse programs.
"Opioid settlement funding that our county received does not begin to make up for all the catastrophic loss of life, but that funding will be able to pay for local initiatives that address the fundamental challenges that we see time and time again," Dr. Burstein said.