BERWICK, Pa. — There were 300 empty chairs inside the Berwick Area Middle School gymnasium on Wednesday. Each seat represents someone who is no longer here.
"We lose 300 lives a day in the United States to overdose," Michelle Creasy said.
Michelle Creasy of Berwick knows this all too well. Her son Jeremy was 27 when he died from a drug overdose in 2018.
"He was kind, compassionate, athletic. He was a fantastic musician and good at just about anything he tried," Creasy said.
Creasy and her family formed Jeremy's Journey after his death as a way to channel their grief.
"We decided to take that horrible negative and turn it into a positive by forming this organization to advocate, educate, and raise awareness about addiction and overdose," Creasy said.
Jeremy's Journey and the Berwick Teen Center hosted a drug abuse awareness event for middle and high school students.
"It's important to keep the conversation open and normalize it, not make it something taboo. The students need to know it's something that they can talk about," Camila Amaya said.
The event featured community organizations and speakers, which students say had a big impact.
"My friends were telling me how moving some of the stories were that they heard, how they never really thought about it until it was actually right in front of them," Amaya said.
The event was held during National Red Ribbon Week, which is the nation's largest drug abuse prevention campaign.
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