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The Jessamine County Health Department will be holding its third annual Overdose to Action Day at the Caroline Memorial YMCA from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 25. 

Right now, 32 vendors have already been confirmed for the event, including snacks and food, kid’s activities, games, the Nicholasville Police Department Copsicle truck, health insurance providers, rehabilitation centers and more. 

According to harm reduction director Sidney Bisschop, this event started along with the implementation of her position in the harm reduction department- both of which were possible because of a grant given to the health department by the University of Kentucky through the Center for Disease Control. 

“Jessamine County was recognized as a county with a high recidivism rate, which is people who are incarcerated and when they get out, within in a week they overdose and pass away or they are reincarnated for a drug-related crime,” Bisschop said.

The county was also recognized as having a high overdose rate, so this grant was made to respond to the county’s public health needs.

“One of our goals was how do we reduce stigma and how do we make people aware of this problem, or at least, publicly talk about this problem. And that’s when we decided to create Overdose to Action Day,” Bisschop said. 

Bisschop said that this event has been a success in the previous years.

Last year, the event had an attendance of 500 people. This year, there are already ten more vendors than the last event and Bisschop expects it to continue to grow. 

Public figures will be in attendance, too, according to Bisschop.

“We try to invite public figures or politicians or people who you wouldn’t expect to be at something like this. For example, a lot of people don’t expect like Judge [Hunter] Daugherty or the commonwealth attorney to be there. People don’t expect them to support substance use disorder. The two of them really try to help people in our program by giving them a second chance,” she said. 

Attendees have the opportunity to win giveaway prizes thanks to donations from Fizz Facial Bar, Jazzercise, Sonny’s BBQ, Dodd’s Corner Market, Monos Coffee, Champions, Tickled Pink, Shepherds House and Cracker Barrel.