When we made the decision to cancel this year’s Western Maine Recovery Rally out of public safety concerns, we also made the decision to do something else to recognize National Recovery Month. We decided to plant “butterfly gardens” in several places across Western Maine. We usually plant one of these gardens at Moore Park in South Paris, where our rally march ends and where we break bread together and listen to amazing speakers share their stories and words of remembrance, hope, courage, and encouragement. This year we’ve planted gardens at several places:
- Moore Park in South Paris
- McLaughlin Garden in South Paris
- Peary Park in Fryeburg
- Davis Park in Bethel
- Boivin Park in Rumford (near the visitor center)
Each of these gardens has a butterfly for each life lost due to overdose in Maine in 2019. There are 380 butterflies in each. 380 too many.
We hope that raising awareness invites others to join us in being part of the solution to the problem of addiction in our communities.
