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Community members invited to join "Walk Against Heroin" in Youngstown Saturday
YOUNGSTOWN
When hundreds of people converge Saturday to walk a 1-mile stretch of Market Street, Nicole Walmsley hopes it will signal a turn in the tide of opioid addiction that has swept across the community.
Walmsley, a recovering heroin addict, organized the first “Walk Against Heroin” in Youngstown, which begins at 3 p.m. Saturday at a Community Corrections Association Inc. unit at 1806 Market St. The walk ends outside the Mahoning County Court Courthouse at 120 Market St. There, participants will hear from several speakers.
“I used to hate living in Youngstown,” said Walmsley, 30, originally from Rootstown, who now lives in Medina. “But I actually feel like I owe my life to that city, because out of all the jails and institutions I’ve been to, CCA in Youngstown was the one that worked for me.”
CCA is a sponsor of the event, which Walmsley says isn’t about making money – participation is free. She’ll be selling T-shirts and bracelets to cover costs and to support Solace of the Valley, a local organization that deals with addiction-related issues.
“My whole goal was to educate the community, and not only that, but to show that police officers have a heart and do care about addicts,” Walmsley said. Ten area police departments are set to participate in the walk, and Walmsley asks that other departments send representatives.
The main purpose, she says, is simple: “I just want change. That’s it.”
She thinks that’s a message that will resonant with many people in the community.
“Two years ago, no, but I think with all the deaths, it’s starting to hit home,” she said. “It’s hitting everyone, from every walk of life. Everybody is getting tired of it, and something’s got to change.”
One of the event’s speakers is Leonard Campanello, the Massachusetts police chief who, the Washington Post recently reported, made waves earlier this year after he decided that his department in Gloucester would grant amnesty to drug addicts seeking help from the police.
The audience also will hear from J.R. Jackson, a Poland Township police officer, who earlier this year was the first officer in Mahoning County to successfully revive an overdose victim with an antidote distributed to local law-enforcement agencies by the sheriff’s office.
A Columbiana County woman whose son died this year will speak, as will Eric Ungaro, Solace of the Valley president.
Walmsley, too, will share her story. She used drugs for most of her 20s after she got hooked on pain pills and then turned to heroin.
“I never thought in a million years that I’d become a junkie,” she said. “I lost all hope. I wanted to die. It was the darkest time of my life.”
That changed for her after she came to Youngstown, she says. She credits the late Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court with giving her a second chance by sending her to CCA.
Today, with two years of sobriety under her belt, she wants to give back to the community that helped her.
For information, visit the “Walk against heroin Youngstown” Facebook page.