Centre County Recognizes National Recovery Month; Vigil to Remember Lives Lost to Overdose

The Centre County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday proclaimed September as National Recovery Month and Aug. 31 as International Overdose Awareness Day, highlighting local efforts to prevent overdose deaths and expand access to addiction recovery services. 

Karri Hull, Centre County director of criminal justice planning, told commissioners that since 2013 more than 53,000 people in Pennsylvania, including 191 in Centre County, have died from drug overdoses.

“It’s currently estimated that we lose one Pennsylvanian every two to three hours to an overdose,” Hull said. “At least one in four families in Pennsylvania is impacted by the chronic disease of addiction. So we must encourage our relatives and friends and people with substance use disorders to implement preventative measures and recognize the signs of a problem, and guide those to appropriate treatment and recovery support services.” 

Hull said the county will once again recognize International Overdose Awareness Day with its annual candlelight remembrance ceremony at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 2 at Talleyrand Park in Bellefonte. 

The ceremony will honor Centre County residents who have died from overdoses and provide an opportunity for family members and friends to share memories. 

“We welcome family and friends to share stories and pictures and memories of their loved ones,” Hull said. “These are our community members. These are someone’s sons and daughters, their mothers and fathers. They meant something to their family, and we feel that they deserve to be remembered in such a way.” 

Hull also addressed the stigma surrounding addiction and said families can experience isolation when a loved one struggles with substance use. 

“The stigma still prevails around addiction, specifically opioid abuse disorder, and… contributes to the harsh realities that those in addiction face, and the isolation their families experience when a loved one loses their fight to addiction.” 

The county courthouse will be illuminated purple beginning Monday as part of the recognition, with signs at the new Community Services Building also displaying purple throughout September. 

Hull said Recovery Month recognizes and encourages those who are living in recovery.

“We celebrate the 23 million Americans that are living in long-term recovery, but we need to celebrate and encourage those in recovery on a daily basis, and not just during the month of September,” Hull said. 

Commissioners Mark Higgins and Steve Dershem credited county employees, nonprofits, courts and community organizations with helping Centre County maintain one of the lower overdose rates among counties nationwide. 

“We have one of the lowest overdose rates in the whole country, and that’s not by accident,” Dershem said. “And maybe it’s a luck of demographics, but I think it’s also a lot of hard work from folks in our community and folks within and outside of county government. A lot of the nonprofits have been effective in making sure that the word gets out about about treatment and recovery, and I think it’s important to recognize, although we are in recovery month, a lot of the folks don’t get that chance, and we need to be cognizant of the fact that it’s a battle out there.” 

Dershem also pointed to the county correctional facility’s medication-assisted treatment program as part of the county’s efforts to help people struggling with substance use disorder. 

Hull said the program has shown positive results as Pennsylvania continues to see changes in overdose deaths. 

“I think we’re seeing a lot of success with our MAT program at the county correctional facility, and Pennsylvania alone had a 16% decrease between 2024 and 2025 deaths,” Hull said. “We can’t say for certain what all contributed. That could be a combination of the Narcan, as well as the MAT programs that a lot of the counties have across the commonwealth. But we just need to keep seeing that number go down.” 

Hull also warned that fentanyl continues to complicate the illicit drug supply. 

“One of the things that’s frightening about the illicit drug trade now is, and it doesn’t matter what particular drug you’re looking at, fentanyl is out there in virtually all of it, and whether it’s methamphetamine or cocaine or heroin, the list goes on,” Hull said. 

Commissioners also discussed Narcan, which Commissioner Amber Concepcion said can be carried without a prescription and used to reverse an opioid overdose. She encouraged residents and public places to keep the medication available. 

The county’s Drug and Alcohol Department can be reached at 814-355-6744 for information about treatment and recovery services.