Vigil organizers Gabrielle Nardacci and Antonio Roman of Tapestry Health, who spoke during the vigil.
Reminder Publishing photos by Amy Porter
WESTFIELD — The theme of the Overdose Awareness Vigil on Aug. 28 was “Forget Me Not,” honoring those lost to overdose, but the message from the speakers directed to family members and people struggling with addiction was “You are not alone.”
Organized by Tapestry Harm Reduction Site at 17 E. Silver St. and the Westfield Peer Recovery Center at 75 Broad St., service providers and emergency responders from organizations working in the community circled the Elm Street Plaza field, illustrating that message.
David Robinson, director of the Peer Recovery Center, a program of the Gandara Center that opened in April with the help of state opioid settlement funds, underlined the purpose of the vigil. “We’re hoping to spread awareness. There is support, there are people that care about you. You’re not alone.”
Among the group of first responders at the vigil was Allison Webster, a crisis clinician contracted out from the Behavioral Health Network to the Westfield Police Department. Webster said she and another crisis counselor are dispatched out to calls with the police and on some 911 calls, and sometimes afterwards for follow up.
Webster said crisis counselors can offer a diversion for jail or for hospitalization, and are able to refer people to different programs, or to get treatment at home. She said the number of calls she works varies from a few times throughout the week, to four or five calls in one night, working between a satellite office or in the police station.
“They appreciate our services, and the de-escalation,” Webster said, adding she works closely with Community Police Officer Matt Preuss, who was at the table next to her at the vigil, and will refer people to him as well, calling them a “tag team.”
Speaking later on stage during the program, Robinson said no one has to face recovery alone. “At our center, there are people who have been there and know what it’s like. Everyone’s story matters — setbacks mean we’ll walk together a little longer. We are here in this together.”
Gabrielle Nardacci of Tapestry, who called Robinson a constant source of support and encouragement for so many, welcomed and thanked people for coming to the vigil. “On a day that can carry so many emotions … remember the good moments. We are here to honor them, each life lost,” she said, adding that loved ones who are gone are not defined by the word “overdose.”
Also speaking on behalf of Tapestry Health was Harm Reduction Syringe Counselor Antonio Roma and Director of Harm Reduction Services Pedro Alvarez.
Roma called the Tapestry site, now five years old, “a space for community members to come in and feel safe … meeting people where they are.”
Alvarez said Tapestry focuses on “dignity, equality and real solutions. Each of us here sends a message.” He said he also sees the pain in the people who were present. Citing recent statistics, he said in 2024 there were five fatal overdoses in Westfield. This year to date, as of June, there has been one fatal overdose, so far.
“This is not just about remembering those we lost, but affirming the living. Here in Westfield, we’ve seen what happens when a community comes together,” Alvarez said. He said Tapestry has distributed 1,000 Naloxone kits, which can reverse overdoses, and worked with Westfield State University to install dispensary boxes across campus.
“It’s inspiring to see young people step up and take actions that will save lives. No one can do this alone — it takes a village. Honor your peers,” he said, adding, “To families, I acknowledge your pain and your advocacy to the broader community. This doesn’t belong to one neighborhood, but to us all. Let’s keep saying the names of those we lost, so they’re not forgotten.”
Emily Matney, program director of the Westfield Family Resource Center, spoke about her personal loss of family members to the disease of addiction. Talking about three of them, she said if systems were better, they would not have died.
Matney talked about her aunt who helped to raise her, who was living in another state and wanted help, but none was available to her. “A week later she died. She had that gift of desperation, but there was no help,” she said.
Six months later, her little brother Nate was picked up for stealing a sandwich, because he was homeless, she said. A week later in a girlfriend’s apartment, he used drugs and was dragged out into the hallway while his girlfriend waited for him in the car.
Three weeks later, her brother Tony was released from prison, and his family begged the authorities to let him come home, but they sent him to a halfway house, where he overdosed.
“I’m also in recovery from opioids,” Maltney said. She said her mission is harm reduction, and urged people to get on medicated assisted treatment. “Don’t use with people who are sketchy — they’ll drag you out in the hallway,” she said, adding, “I’m thankful to see you are here … I’m grateful to be part of a community like this — we’re all here to help.”
Nardacci thanked Maltney for her message, saying that it takes great strength to speak from a place of loss.
Harm Reduction coordinator Mark Jachym, who has been speaking at the vigil since before Tapestry or the Peer Recovery Center came to Westfield, said in the last couple of years, the reported overdoses have declined in some communities. He acknowledged it in some respects as good news, attributable to Narcan and other services. “Now is not the time to cut back on services,” Jachym said, citing newer drugs and the damaging effects of alcoholism.
“The reality on the ground remains dangerous and devastating. Overdose prevention saves lives. We need places where people can use drugs safely, keeping people alive so they’ll have choices to make. Overdose Awareness Day is not only to remember those we lost. One life lost is too many, every life saved is a chance for connection and hope.”
The last speaker Westfield Peer Recovery Center coach Jessica Lincoln said, “I stand here as a grateful mother, wife, woman in recovery. I am deeply grateful to be here in this community,” before votives were given out for a moment of silence.
Lincoln then read a poem by an anonymous author which begins, “They were not numbers. They were names. They were not shameful. They were brave. Fighting battles in the shadows they gave all that they gave. We speak your name with power, not silence, not regret. You mattered. You were loved. And we will not forget.”
The worship band One Hope from the Westfield Evangelical Free Church played before and after the speakers. At the end of the program, people were invited to write a message or name on an overdose remembrance banner.
