Fighting back against Tri-Cities overdose deaths with new ‘Hands across the Bridge’ event

A group of Tri-Cities community members are working together to shatter the silence around overdose deaths, and help save lives.

Fentanyl has made overdoses more deadly than ever, and these Tri-Citians are saying enough is enough. Nearly every overdose death in the Tri-Cities in the first half of 2023 was related to fentanyl.

In recognition of Overdose Awareness Day a group of people who have overcome addiction, work in counseling and have lost friends and loved ones to overdoses are joining together to shed light on how others can help.

The two-day effort starts with an event at United Family Center from noon to 4 p.m. on Aug. 31, in the former Tri-City Herald building at 333 W. Canal Dr. Speakers will discuss how addiction and overdoses have impacted their lives, followed with a march from the building to the cable bridge the next evening.

The walk begins at 5 p.m. It was inspired by the Hands Across the Bridge Project in Vancouver and Portland, where community members come together across the I-5 bridge to advocate for the recovery community.

Organizer Nancy Delgado told the Herald that the Tri-Cities event grew naturally out of a desire to help those fighting addiction in their lives. As she reached out to others trying to cement a vision for how they could help, more and more people joined in.

Now they have counselors from United Family, Somerset Counseling and others joining people in recovery and other community groups to help make a difference.

Their goal is to reach as many people as possible, from as many backgrounds as possible.

Delgado said they recognize that each person’s path to recovery is going to look different, so they want to offer as many ways to take that first step as they can.

They hope to reach not only people dealing with addiction, but also their families. She wants to make sure parents have resources to help if they have a child struggling.

They hope that by sharing their stories, and making resources available, they can help stem the tide of deadly overdoses. They also want to celebrate the bravery of those willing to come forward to share their personal stories.

Pattrisha Pesina, who is representing Narcotics Anonymous, said that they want this event to be a call to action, a protest against letting addiction win.

“We just want everyone to come together and say, we’re standing up, this is the call to action,” she said. “We are picketing addiction, we are done staying silent. We are letting everybody know.”

Pesina said the treatment services providers aren’t there for marketing or to get new clients, they’re getting involved because they care and they want to help.

As a clinician, she said she saw more patients die from overdoses in the past three years than she had at any other time in her career.

She wonders how many people she’s lost in her own life would still be here today if they knew how many people wanted to help.

“It’s an event and memorial. When I think about this memorial, we are honoring people that have gone before us and saying, we are not going to let you go in vain,” she said. “We are uniting together, we are going to do ‘Hands Across the Bridge Tri-Cities.’”

Delgado said they still have room for booths at the Aug. 31 event for anyone who wants to get involved. They can email her to get started, at nancy12man@yahoo.com