EASTHAMPTON — Each day, Julie Foster holds close the memories of her loved ones who lost their lives to drug overdose: her daughter, Ahymee Lamoureux; her nephew, Tony Ferris; and her brother, Peter Hedding.

“It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from,” said Foster, tears running down her face. “It doesn’t care what color your skin is, it doesn’t care how much money you come from. ... people really need to pay attention because it only takes one pill to kill.”

Foster’s daughter, Ahymee, died at age 34 of fentanyl poisoning after years of opioid addiction that Foster attributes to a back surgery. When she died, her daughter was just 4 years old.

“My granddaughter, she looks just like her mama, her mannerisms, everything,” said Foster. “And she tells me every day, ‘I miss my mama, I miss my mama’... Her dad told her that when it rains, they’re mama kisses, so she’ll go out in the rain.”

Now, Foster works with the Northampton Recovery Center, “trying to make a difference, trying to save other mothers and fathers and grandparents and siblings from having to go through this,” she said, adding that the pain of loss is ever present.

Foster was one of around 75 people in attendance at a vigil held at Millside Park Monday evening honoring lives lost to overdose, acknowledging the grief felt by friends and families, and reducing stigma around drug-related death.

The event came in advance of International Overdose Awareness Day on Thursday, a campaign first established in Australia in 2001 that now holds events worldwide.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 1 million people have died from a drug overdose since 1999.

In 2021 alone, 106,699 people died of drug overdose in the United States, an increase by 14% from 2020. According to the state Department of Public Health, Massachusetts saw 2,357 confirmed and estimated opioid deaths in 2022.

Opioids, which are medically prescribed for pain relief, accounted for 75.4% of all drug overdose deaths during that time period.

“The effects of substance use disorder go way beyond just one person,” said Lindsey Werbiskis, one of the speakers at Monday’s event. Werbiskis lost her brother, Danny Werbiskis, in 2017.

“Not only did I lose my brother, but Danny’s friends and coworkers are forever missing someone they care for, worked alongside, grew up with, and loved,” she said. “My brother didn’t choose addiction, and no family chooses this.”

Another speaker, Dan Harper, lost his daughter, Eliza Harper, on her 26th birthday of an opioid overdose.

“This monster exists. We know it by different names, by opioid use disorder, by addiction, by overdose, whatever you want to call it,” said Harper. “And we know this monster has an arsenal of weapons.”

“Stigma is the most powerful, mind-blowing problem of this whole thing. It forces people struggling with addiction to use alone, to not ask for help, to not tell people what they’re doing,” he said.

Harper is now working on creating a low-cost wearable device, “Eliza’s Watch,” that detects a person’s motion. When no motion is detected after a certain amount of time, the watch sounds a private alarm to get a response from the wearer; if there is still no motion response, the watch then activates a louder public alarm to alert nearby people who can then step in and help.

“The bottom line is, people don’t want to die. They want something to call for help for them,” said Harper.

Mayor Nicole LaChapelle also spoke at the event of the seen and unseen “countless ways that overdoses touch Easthampton residents, communities and care providers.”

She said the city is looking to hold community nights to get input from those impacted by drug overdose so that the city can apply municipal opioid lawsuit dollars toward harm reduction, treatment and recovery.

“This epidemic is something that has touched every single life,” state Rep. Dan Carey said. “We can all name a family member, a classmate, a co-worker, a neighbor, a loved one, something that we know that’s no longer with us. And that person will never be replaced.”

At the event there were also over 15 tables with representatives from Tapestry Health, Learn to Cope, Northstar Recovery Center, Narcotics Anonymous, Support After Death by Overdose (SADOD), Northampton Health Department, Hampshire HOPE, and the Drug Abuse Response Team (DART).

Tablers offered information on support services, peer groups, and mindfulness practices, as well as free harm reduction resources including fetanyl strips and Narcan, an over-the-counter nasal spray that reverses opioid overdose in a matter of minutes.

Peter Babineau, director of Learn to Cope in western Massachusetts, encouraged those at the event to carry Narcan with them at all times.

“You never know when you will be called on to be somebody’s angel. Please be prepared,” said Babineau.

Attendees at the vigil were invited to hang pictures and messages to loved ones on a clothespin line between two trees. Heart-shaped pieces of paper read words like “always loved, never forgotten” and “quietly remembered every day.”

A line of luminary bags, which attendees decorated and later lit by candle at the end of the vigil, also contained messages of love and heartache.

Holding their candles at the end of the night, participants were invited to shout the names of their loved ones lost to overdose. Their names — Peter, Ahymee, Tony, Eliza, Chris, and too many others — echoed in unison.

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