Kachemak Bay Recovery Connection starts the September Recovery Month community awareness with a 5K run/walk and music social event on Aug. 31 at the Deep Water Dock on the Homer Spit. Walkers, runners and strollers are welcome to participate. Pre-registration is available on the organization’s website: kbayrecovery.org. The early registration cost is $25, free for children 12 and under. Day of registration event will also be available from 9-10:15 a.m. Walkers will start at 10:30 a.m. and runners will start at 11 a.m.

After the race there will a community social event with music from the Pushki Pickers and Sirens Seafood and Streetfood food bus.

Willy Dunne, board member with the organization, noted that Aug. 31 is also International Overdose Awareness Day. It’s a day that “helps remind of all the tragic instances where people have died from opioid overdoses, as well as other drug and alcohol overdoses,” he said. It also helps to bring awareness to the fact that “we’re in the middle of an opioid epidemic, especially with fentanyl making an increasing appearance in the communities.”

The following week, on Sept. 7, the organization will sponsor a memorial service for people who have died from opioid overdose. That will take place at WKFL park on Pioneer Avenue starting at 4 p.m.

Additional events for the month of September are still in the final planning phases and will be posted on the organization’s website as final information is available.

Kachemak Bay Recovery Connection is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that emerged out of collaborative efforts and conversations around ways to support recovery efforts for people with opioid use disorder and other substance abuse disorders on the southern Kenai Peninsula.

According to a press release provided to the Homer News, the Kachemak Bay Recovery Connection holds additional year-round sober events to “create safe and supportive connections, empower individuals and families, and build a recovery community for all people in recovery or those affected by addiction.”

During 2024, the organization has held a sober garden at Salmonfest; bike ride and barbecue; Grewingk Glacier hike; Seldovia trip and Otterbahn hike; spring cleanup and barbecue; quarterly recovery speaker series; de-stigmatization movie; participation in the Winter Carnival; and skate and pizza dinner.