The ROAR Recovery Coaching Center at 34 High St. in Skowhegan is shown Thursday. Jake Freudberg/Morning Sentinel

SKOWHEGAN — A local volunteer group plans to mark International Overdose Awareness Day Saturday with a vigil and walk.

The sixth annual Vigil & Hope Walk By Candlelight, organized by the community organization Recovery & Opioid Addiction Resources, or ROAR, will recognize people who have died from causes related to substance use disorder, while spreading awareness about the issue and resources in Somerset County, an organizer said.

“What we’re trying to do is bring awareness,” said Stacy Austin, who manages ROAR’s recovery center in Skowhegan. “And remembering that the people that we’ve lost in our community aren’t just statistics, they aren’t just diagnoses, they’re not just data collection. They’re people.”

From 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Saturday, materials will be available at ROAR’s Recovery Coaching Center, at 34 High St., for participants to make signs and a memory tag for someone who has been lost to substance use disorder.

At 6:30 p.m., the group will walk through downtown Skowhegan for a candlelight “hope walk” before returning to the High Street center, where the tags can be added to a memory tree.

The group’s goals in the vigil and walk include spreading a message of hope and reducing stigma around substance use disorder, Austin said.

Though the event coincides with the overdose awareness day, causes of death from substance use disorder may include car accidents, related health issues, or suicide, Austin said.

“We’re really focusing on positive affirmation, nothing derogatory, nothing stigmatizing,” she said. “We’re trying to stick to the positive.”

Austin said she is expecting between 20 and 50 people to attend, depending on the weather. The event is open to all.

In previous years, the event was held together with an annual rally organized by ROAR, which is scheduled for Sept. 28 at Coburn Park in Skowhegan, Austin said. This year, organizers moved the vigil to Aug. 31 to coincide with International Overdose Awareness Day. The day marks a global campaign to end overdoses, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2023, fatal overdoses in Maine declined 16%, marking the first year-to-year reduction in fatalities since 2018, according to state data. Overdose deaths in the state peaked in 2022 at 723; there were 607 reported in 2023.

The overall declining trend appeared to continue through the first half of this year, according to data and state officials.

In Somerset County, there were 29 suspected and confirmed overdose deaths in 2023. This year, through June, there have been 14.

As a rural county, transportation is a major issue for people with substance use disorder, Austin said. Statewide, housing shortages present another major challenge.

ROAR was founded by community members six years ago to help people with recovery, Austin said. It grew from organizing a couple of events per year to developing the center in Skowhegan in collaboration with the mental health provider Kennebec Behavioral Health, she said.

Austin, who works for Kennebec Behavioral Health as the recovery coach coordinator for Somerset and Franklin counties, said the center offers an open space to connect with others, internet access, and programming like support groups and educational trainings. It is open to the public on Wednesdays and Thursdays during daytime hours.

Somerset County is the only county in Maine that lacks a grant-funded recovery center, Austin said. That means ROAR’s center is run largely by volunteers.

The organization works with many others in the area to provide resources to people dealing with substance use disorder, including Somerset Public Health, Blue Sky Counseling, Kennebec Behavioral Health, Redington-Fairview General Hospital, the Skowhegan Police Department and the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office.

“Even though we all work for different agencies, and we all have our different programming,” Austin said, “we all work together for the common goal to support people with substance use disorder.”