With Saturday being International Overdose Awareness day and September National Recovery Awareness Month, Centre County held a Candlelight Remembrance Ceremony Thursday night.

The Hope Initiative, Centre County’s Drug Awarenss Program, wants to spread awareness on how quickly drugs can take a life but also comfort those who have lost a loved one to an overdose through the Candlelight Remembrance Ceremony at the Centre County Courthouse.

“Three years ago I had laugh lines, character wrinkles, now those soft wrinkles have hardened into grief lines,” Apryle Helsel, Mother of a substance abuse victim, said.

Helsel’s life changed on June 26, 2016.

“We opened up the door, and she was kneeling on the floor, with her head turned away from us, we went to her and hugged her and laid her out on the floor and she was gone,” Helsel, said

Her 24-year-old daughter katie died of a drug overdose.

Police say Katie was using heroin but it was fentanyl that killed her.

“I shall try to forget the picture of death in my head as they wheeled my baby down the driveway with a blanket,” Helsel, said.

Helsel is one of several parents grieving the loss of a child from a drug overdose at the Candlelight Remembrance Ceremony in Centre County .

County Commissioner Steve Dershem says this year drug related deaths have gone significantly down in the county, but the fight is not over.

“This time last year, we were at 17, and this year we’re at 2, so we would like to think that the efforts of our organization, law enforcement and many interested organizations in the community, have all been part of that education process,” Commissioner Dershem, said.

Helsel says she had no idea her daughter was using but hopes awareness through events like this can prevent another parent from losing their child.

“We didn’t know what the signs might have been, maybe we missed them,” Helsel, said.

The Centre County Courthouse will be lit up purple for all of September in honor of National Recovery Awareness Month.

To learn about the signs of drug abuse you can visit:

https://www.centrecountyhope.org/