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Some people stop at the colored flags and recovery signs Dot Butler has been putting out on the Winchester Town Common this month. Many do not.
“People walk by, see what you have, and keep going,” said Butler, community health program manager for the Winchester Health Department.
Others come over. The next chance to reach them comes Wednesday, Sept. 30, when the Winchester Coalition for a Safer Community holds its second Recovery & Remembrance Candlelight Vigil at 6 p.m. on the Common, near Waterfield and Church streets.
The Coalition’s announcement says the vigil will celebrate people in recovery and remember those who have died. Candles of hope are to be lit for people in Winchester and surrounding communities who are struggling with substance use.
Winchester held its first vigil on the same date last year. Dozens gathered on the town common that night for a story walk, candles and a moment of silence. Margaret Walsh spoke about her son, Robbie, who died in 2019 at 19 after years of addiction.
“A lot of the other towns do it,” Butler said. “We kind of came to terms with the need to bring it to our town.”
Purple for the lost, white for families
The flags on the Common follow a color code. Purple flags stand for people who died and white flags for their families and friends, Butler said. Yellow flags mark those who have taken their own lives.
A shield-shaped sign at the display says each white flag represents the ripple effect of the suffering felt by families.
The deaths involve drugs and alcohol, she said.
“In some ways, alcohol can be the gateway,” Butler added.
Not every flag represents a Winchester resident. Butler called the display an example and said the local losses she knows of are not many, though some “didn’t get reported back.”
For last year’s vigil, Butler borrowed much of the display from another community, including sandwich boards with bullet-point signs about “the kid or the adult that we lost.”
This year, families will tell those stories themselves.
“This year, I actually have four families that are willing to share their story,” Butler said.
Their stories will go on yard signs, and she said the families plan to speak as well.
Scheduled speakers include state Rep. Michael Day; Steven Kent, co-owner of Insight Recovery Treatment Center in Winchester; Barrie Brian, a town recovery coach; and counselor Sal Caraviello.
Day, Kent and Brian all spoke at the first vigil, where Brian described her own long-term recovery. Others will share their experiences with substance use this year.
Butler has built toward the vigil all month. She opened what she calls the month of recovery by setting out signs at the entrance to the town common, then added what she called “my second installment of why recovery is so important.”
Next, she said, comes a story walk on the importance of having programs available to address the problem.
A coalition that ‘had to grow’
Butler has been involved with the Coalition since it formed in 1999. It began when a man became concerned about young people drinking, including in the Middlesex Fells.
The group’s work widened as Winchester’s problems changed. Butler pointed to difficult times around 2010 and 2011.
“We had to grow,” she said. “We grew with it. But we also had to get engagement. It’s very hard getting engagement around subjects like this.”
The Coalition meets monthly, is housed in the Health Department and is part of the Mystic Valley Public Health Coalition. It works with Winchester Public Schools, the police and fire departments, the Jenks Center and Winchester Hospital.
Winchester now has recovery coaches and a mental-health coordinator who works with the Police Department, Butler said. Insight Recovery Treatment Center, near the town’s transfer station, gives the town another place to refer people.
“We have so many more resources that we never had,” she said.
Butler had Narcan kits at a display during Spirit Weekend. The town also offers free, anonymous naloxone, the overdose-reversal drug sold under the Narcan brand, on the lower level of Town Hall. Kits handed out at a 2024 town training also included fentanyl test strips.
A 2024 town needs assessment on opioid use drew 378 responses. Forty-one respondents said a family member had died from opioid-use disorder or an overdose, and 21 said a family member was living with the disorder.
Among respondents, illegal opioids were the most common substance-use concern, followed by alcohol. Fourteen said they or a relative wanted confidential family support sessions.
The survey’s authors cautioned that respondents chose to take part, so the results do not represent the whole town. The figures are also not a count of Winchester deaths.
Recently, a young woman walked over to the display. She told Butler it had been alcohol.
“She’s been in recovery for nine years, and you just got to congratulate her,” Butler said.
Will Dowd is a Massachusetts journalist who covers municipal government and community life for Winchester News. He is also the founder and editor of The Marblehead Independent, a reader-funded digital newsroom.
