Some ballgames are just ballgames. This Sunday’s isn’t. On August 30, Rensselaer County and its community partners, the Nopiates Committee and the Tri-City ValleyCats among them, host Home Runs for Hope at Joe Bruno Stadium, recognizing Overdose Awareness Day and bringing members of the recovery community together for an afternoon at the Joe.
The details are easy: gates open at 3:30 p.m., first pitch at 5:00, and fireworks after the game. The stadium is at 80 Vandenburgh Avenue in Troy, on the Hudson Valley Community College campus, about twenty minutes down Route 40. Tickets are through the ValleyCats ticket office or the QR code on the event flyer; questions go to nopiatesevents@gmail.com.
The day behind the game deserves the moment. International Overdose Awareness Day falls on August 31, and around here the fight it marks is not abstract: the county’s Nopiates Committee, whose motto is “Awareness. Prevention. Support.”, has spent years on the unglamorous work of prevention and of standing with families who have lost someone. Sunday’s lineup of partners tells you how broad that effort runs: the Sheriff’s Office, the county health and mental-health departments, county tourism, and a minor-league ball club, all in the same purple.
A ballpark turns out to be a fitting place for it. Recovery happens in community, and so does baseball: a few thousand neighbors in the same stands, cheering the same direction, with fireworks at the end. If you or your family have been touched by addiction, and around here that is most of us at some remove, Sunday is a chance to be counted among people who understand.
And if you just want to take the kids to a ballgame with fireworks on the last Sunday of summer, that’s welcome too. That’s rather the point.
One more thing worth printing any day of the year: if you or someone you love is struggling, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988) connects to trained help around the clock, and nopiates.com lists local prevention and support resources.
Details from Rensselaer County’s announcement and the event flyer; flyer courtesy of Rensselaer County and the Nopiates Committee. Confirm game-day details with the ValleyCats.
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