BUTTE - Dozens of people gathered at Copper Mountain Park in Butte on Aug. 31 — International Overdose Awareness Day — flying 50 purple kites in memory of those lost to overdose.
Watch as Butte flies purple kites to mark International Overdose Awareness Day
“I think it’s amazing that this many people are supporting something like this. Connection is the opposite of addiction, you know, we need connection,” Lindy Johnson said.
Johnson was among the dozens of people flying kites to remember those they lost to addiction on International Overdose Awareness Day on Monday. She lost her mother to overdose in 2022 and her husband the same way in 2014. A loss she’ll never forget.
“A mutual friend of ours had found him in her house, so it was really painful. I don’t think I’ve ever felt that much pain in my life ever,” she said.
She wrote her husband’s and her mother’s names on her kite.
“How amazing it is to honor them with something like this. They’re in Heaven..."
The event was organized by Beautiful Mind Recovery of Montana.
Brandon Seaman said addiction turned his life into chaos.
“Continually getting locked up, letting people down, missing out years with my son, missing out years with my family,” Beautiful Minds Recovery member Seaman said.
In honor of Overdose Awareness, the city changed the lights on the headframes to purple that evening.
“It’s a start of something good for Butte, a change of things. We want to get a recovery community built up here,” Seaman said.
Johnson has been in recovery from her own drug addiction for nearly a year now.
“I feel so much hope. I never had hope before, but I have hope now,” she said.
