A candlelight vigil will be held this week to remember those who have overdosed
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IDAHO FALLS — A local nonprofit is coming together this week to spread overdose awareness with a candlelight vigil to remember those who have died from addiction.
Soldiers of Hope—Idaho Falls founder Kathleen Chin-Abood and her husband, co-founder Allen Abood, are hosting the event. The nonprofit organization focuses on drug overdose prevention. They want to spread a positive message of hope and recognize people in recovery.
“It’s a tough event but it’s something that needs to be known. The community needs to see more of it and understand it because we need the community’s help,” said Abood.
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The local event
International Overdose Awareness Day is Aug. 31. A candlelight vigil will be held at 7 p.m. at the Greenbelt near Memorial Drive and D Street by the roundabout.
People are encouraged to bring a 4 inch by 6 inch picture of a family member or friend who has passed from an overdose so they can be honored and remembered. Luminaries are provided.
The event’s purpose is to recognize all the warriors in recovery and spread hope to those still in active use.
Years of addiction and turning it around
Michelle Smoley from Idaho Falls has been attending the event for a few years now. She just celebrated five and a half years sober and told EastIdahoNews.com her story.
“I had a back injury in my early 20s. It led me to a doctor and painkillers,” Smoley said.
The painkillers eventually led her to addiction. Then, it got harder to get prescription drugs. So she went to heroin. Her battle with addiction progressed over an 18-year period.
“My back was no longer in pain. I would lie to say that it was. Unfortunately, turning to heroin, it started taking me around people I normally wouldn’t have been around,” she said.
Smoley was a daycare owner. She had a big house, a good husband, kids and cars. But her addiction took over.
“Meth is what took me out. I had held it together on opioids for 17 years. Then that last year, that was meth. I quit going home, I started committing crimes,” Smoley said.
She was facing felony charges, including grand theft, burglary and forgery.
“(In) 2017 I had committed my crimes. I had never had a misdemeanor, and I went straight to a handful of felonies. 2018, I got sentenced to drug court. 2019, I graduated from drug court. 2020, I got off probation. In 2021, I had my felonies taken off,” she explained.
Then, she turned her life completely around, trying to help others recover and providing resources. She works as a recovery coach at The Center for Hope and loves what she does. Smoley says recovery is her passion.
“I am currently the recovery coach for felony drug court—the program I graduated. I get to see firsthand these women and these people go through the same things I did and I get a peer-to-peer relationship with these people,” she said.
International Overdose Awareness Day
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare will host an event on Thursday at the Idaho Capitol to commemorate International Overdose Awareness Day at 10 a.m. Governor Brad Little is expected to speak about the overdose epidemic in Idaho.
Overdose Awareness Day is the world’s largest campaign to remember lives lost to fatal overdose, according to a news release.
The event will feature over 380 picture frames that will be on the Capitol steps, each representing an Idaho resident who died from a drug overdose last year.
Overdose death continues to increase in Idaho. There was a 33% increase in all drug overdose deaths between 2020 and 2022, the release cited.
Additionally, Idaho has seen an increase in fentanyl-related overdoses and overdose deaths. From 2020 to 2022, the rate of fentanyl-related overdose deaths tripled in Idaho—with approximately 49% overdose deaths involving fentanyl, according to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.
As for the local event by Soldiers of Hope, there will be music and guest speakers along with resources. It’s the fifth annual event.
“When you come there and see this in the dark…all those luminaries, all up there, it just makes you want to bawl your eyes out. It’s just so hard to see. We knew those people, we were friends with those people. We had contact with them all the time,” Abood said.
Chin-Abood added that the names are read out loud of each person in order to honor them.
Soldiers of Hope can be reached at (208) 227-4847 or (949) 637-6374 for help.
Smoley encourages people to come out to the event.
“I feel like every single person knows someone. It’s a good way to honor people we have lost and pray for the people still struggling and rally around the ones still fighting,” Smoley said. “Nobody is ever too far gone that they can’t be reached.”
If people cannot attend the event on Thursday, there is a Recovery Fest hosted by The Center for Hope on Friday at Freeman Park from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. There will be raffles, dinner, and speakers.
