FedUP! March to End Overdose Epidemic – How Beach House Is Involved
Friday, August 31 marks the second consecutive year that Beach House will participate in our local FedUP! march and rally.
For Beach House Alumni Director Jared DiCianno, this year’s demonstration isn’t just about calling for an end to the addiction and overdose epidemic in Southeast Florida and communities across the U.S. The event is also an opportunity for alumni from our treatment programs to “bring awareness about addiction to the rest of the community,” and “it bolsters their confidence going into long-term sobriety that the addiction stigma is not what they thought it was when they first attempted to get clean and sober.”
That’s why DiCianno is organizing a group of Beach House alumni to serve as volunteers at the event. Roughly 20 of our alumni will be on site at Florida Atlantic University to help set up for the event, sign in participants, join in the afternoon’s proceedings, and clean up afterwards— but they’ll also be there building rapport with the local community and encouraging more participation.
“When you find a fellowship, you find a lot of self-esteem and confidence in that,” DiCianno said. “Knowing it’s okay that you were once a drug addict—and that you’re trying to be of service to others now—provides a lot of value to our community involvement.”
Why Beach House Is Taking Part
The annual event here in South Florida marks International Overdose Awareness Day, and has been going strong for several years: roughly 500 people, most of them residents of Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Martin counties, took part in last year’s march. This year’s organizers want to see more than double that number show up at Florida Atlantic University on Friday, August 31, at 3pm. Their goal: an end to a national public health emergency that currently claims thousands of lives each year in preventable drug overdoses.
Among the event’s organizers is the community substance abuse prevention leader and treatment and recovery advocate, Micah Robbins. Robbins has been working with the event’s lead sponsors, Southeast Florida Recovery Advocates, to get the word out about the August 31 march and rally. He shared why Beach House is supporting the cause by sending volunteers:
Beach House knows this is a community issue. People don’t understand the epidemic around them and how treatment and recovery are successful in South Florida. This is an event to celebrate everyone who is affected by this issue and doing their part to resolve it. When we say “fed up,” this isn’t about putting up roadblocks— it’s about joining hands as a community in order to work together to end this crisis.
“This is a huge issue that needs everyone’s help,” Robbins added, noting that “Beach House’s recent foray onto the national stage makes it even more imperative that Beach House be involved.”
How to Get Involved – Key Event Details and Who to Contact for More Information
Pre-march preparations will begin at 3pm on Friday, August 31, at Florida Atlantic University’s Research Park (3848 FAU Research Park #100). From there the march will kick off at 4pm and will finish at 5pm, at University Theater (777 Glades Road, Boca Raton, FL 33431).
Anticipated speakers include:
- A Florida State Congresswoman
- An NFL Hall-of-Famer in recovery
- A Medical Doctor who founded Florida’s only needle exchange
- A Nobel Prize-awarded addiction researcher
- An advocate within a recovery-supportive police department
- And a person in long-term recovery through non-narcotic pain management.
Get parking instructions and other logistics for the event.
If you’d like to volunteer with Beach House at the event, please contact Jared DiCianno at (561) 360-8698.