News

Letter to the Editor: Thank You To Those Who Made Vigil Possible

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Dear Editor:

On behalf of the New Canaan Parent Support Group, I thank the people of our town for uniting together during the first-ever Overdose Awareness Day & Vigil on Aug. 31 in downtown New Canaan. It was great to have over double the expected turnout at around 600. We ran out of candles! This event had three goals: 1) to honor and remember those who died too soon; and 2) to come together as a community to openly discuss addiction and mental health; and 3) learn how we can all help others to heal.

Around Town

Hundreds Gather Downtown for Overdose Awareness Vigil

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More than 400-plus people gathered at the Pop Up Park downtown Thursday night to honor those who have died from accidental drug overdoses as well as those struggling with addiction. Those attending the New Canaan Parent Support Group and New Canaan Community Foundation’s vigil on National Overdose Awareness Day heard emotional, heartfelt stories shared by four individuals—two from those in recovery from addiction and two from parents who had a child succumb to the disease. One of those parents was Paul Reinhardt, founder of the New Canaan Parent Support Group, whose son Evan, a graduate of New Canaan High School in 2009, passed away due to a drug overdose in July 2015. “Evan was a true jokester,” Reinhardt told the crowd on a clear, cool night. “He was always out to have fun and amuse those around him to make them happy—always thinking about the other guy.

News

After Profound Loss, New Canaan Dad Launches Support Group To Help Parents of Kids Struggling with Addiction

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In retrospect, New Canaan resident Paul Reinhardt traces the start of a deeply painful four-year journey to May 2011, the moment he found Suboxone—a drug that can be used to treat addiction to narcotic painkillers—in his son’s nightstand drawer. It had been nine months since his son, Evan, was prescribed 30 opioid pills after getting his wisdom teeth out. The following spring, as Evan’s sophomore year at Miami University drew to a close, the young New Canaan High School graduate appeared suddenly disheveled and pale to his father, and back home that same month, local police during a traffic stop found pot and Xanax on him. “Because you as a parent are feeling his feelings in a lot of different ways, you have denial: ‘How could this really be happening?’ You have fear,” Reinhardt recalled on a recent morning. “You have loneliness.