Both overdoses and suicides are on the rise, and prevention starts with one thing: education.
Each year, the Oswego County Substance Awareness Family Education Fair – called the SAFE Fair – helps with that education, offering speakers, live presentations and life-saving information about drugs, addiction and mental health.
Due to COVID-19, the 2020 fair has gone virtual. It’s happening on Zoom on Wednesday, October 21st from 11am to 3pm, and Thursday, October 22nd from 2pm to 6pm.
15 different live presentations are planned with presenters from around the region. Topics include current drug trends, vaping, happiness, addiction options and mindfulness.
“Oswego County is just so fortunate to have a network of people who put on events like this” says Tyler Ahart, DFC Coalition Coordinator for the Oswego County Prevention Coalition. “Events like these serve to raise awareness and challenge these social issues such as addiction and many others. That’s really the goal here.”
“The problem continues, unfortunately” says Teresa Woolson, President of the VOW Foundation. “It’s a spiraling problem. We still have a lot of problems with synthetic drugs. It’s still one of the number one problems we have.”
Woolson’s son Victor died as a result of synthetic drug use in 2012. Since then, Teresa has run the VOW Foundation in her son’s memory, working to raise awareness.
