The fourth annual Festival of Hope is set for Aug. 31 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Anchor Church in Easton and includes the eighth year kick-off for Talbot Goes Purple.
The festival is a partnership between Talbot Goes Purple and Mid-Shore Restoring Hope in Women and coincides with International Overdose Awareness Day. The event celebrates the hope that recovery is possible for anyone still struggling, and honors those lost from substance use. Previous year events saw 300 to 400 attendees, along with 30+ community vendors.
This year’s festival again includes free food; live music with Eastpoint Church; family fun including a dunking booth with Talbot County Sheriff Joe Gamble, bounce house, face painting, games and prizes; activities with the Talbot County Sheriff’s Office including K-9 demonstrations; resource tables; and a memorial for those lost. New this year is a prayer tent with Eastpoint Church, available to anyone who’d like to pray.
Sherry Collier, founder of Mid-Shore Restoring Hope in Women, has organized overdose awareness day events in Easton since 2017. Her non-profit supports women in need of recovery services and is soon opening a recovery house in Federalsburg, the first for Caroline County.
Overdose deaths across the nation decreased last year for the first time since 2018, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Opioid deaths declined the most, but synthetic opioids like fentanyl continue to drive overdoses. And overdose deaths for 10 to 19-year-olds more than doubled since the start of the pandemic.
“Since we started TGP in 2016, fentanyl has come onto the scene and has largely fueled the more than doubling of overdoses in our youth,” said Gamble. “The potency of a single counterfeit pill containing fentanyl can prove deadly. We have to continue educating young people about the realities of substance use.
“We hope everyone comes out to the festival to celebrate the hope and power of recovery, but most important we want them to: Get the Facts, Get Involved and Get Talking.”
Talbot Goes Purple is a substance use prevention program that empowers our youth and our community to ‘Go Purple’ as a sign of taking a stand against substance abuse. The initiative includes purple clubs in our local schools, through which students learn they do not need drugs or alcohol to meet life’s challenges.
For more information on festival sponsorships or resource tables, or you’d like to include someone in the memorial, email talbotgoespurple@gmail.com.
The community can again display purple lights and gear starting Sept. 1 and throughout the month as a show of taking a stand against substance abuse. More information is available at www.talbotgoespurple.org. Find TGP on Facebook @TalbotGoesPurple.
Talbot Goes Purple is in partnership with Talbot County Public Schools, Saints Peter and Paul Schools, and Mid-Shore Community Foundation. Generous support for the festival this year includes Anchor Church, Chesapeake Parties, Eastpoint Church, Easton Elks Lodge #1622, Easton Rotary, Gratitude Behavioral Health, Pepsi Bottling Ventures, Preston Automotive Group and the Town of Oxford.
Talbot Goes Purple is a component fund of the Mid-Shore Community Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization – donations to which are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.
