Sarasota Fights Fentanyl Walk brings hundreds out to honor lives lost: 'You can find peace'

Hundreds join in fentanyl awareness walk

Each photo told a different story about struggles with addiction, and each face belonged to a person who lost their lives to the deadly drug, fentanyl.?Kimberly Kuizon reports.

SARASOTA, Fla. - Each photo told a different story about struggles with addiction, and each face belonged to a person who lost their lives to the deadly drug, fentanyl. 

Their friends and family have made it their mission to continue their fight, and more than 500 people joined in Sarasota Monday morning to raise awareness and help others with the same struggles. It's for the second annual "Sarasota Fights Fentanyl Walk and Resource Fair."

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Local perspective:

Many carried photos of loved ones or friends. 

"I want to show that we’ve lost so many out there to this disease, to this drug. I want to show that it works, that there is a place where you can find peace, and it not be with what we’ve been dealing with," said Yvette Baldwin. 

Baldwin was one of the participants, who walked for her best friend, Alexandra Calhound. 

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"She was young, in her 30s. She had two beautiful babies she left behind. She was so bubbly. She had got recovery. She found it and soon as she relapsed it took her right out," said Baldwin. 

Why you should care:

Shaneal Lacey was joined with her family. 

"I'm in recovery myself. This walk in mainly important because of my son, Kane Howell. We lost him a year ago on July 31 to a fentanyl poisoning," said Lacey. 

Through her pain, Lacey has not lost hope of working to get fentanyl off the streets. 

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"I want to carry on his memory. That’s a promise I made to myself once he passed, that he will never, never, never be forgotten. Just to bring awareness to it and let people know how dangerous it is. People think that they know what they are doing," she said. 

Families and survivors were joined by recovery groups, the first responders called to the scenes of overdoses and the deputies who work in the Sarasota County Jail recovery programs. All joined with the message that there is hope, and they will continue to fight for the lives that fentanyl can too easily take.

"Alexandra is from Englewood. I hope this shows them too we can do this. I do it. We can do it, you know what I mean. We can find an out that won’t take us out completely out of life," said Baldwin. 

What's next:

The Sarasota Fights Fentanyl Walk will continue to be an annual event, said organizers. More than 1,000 boxes of Narcan were also given out with instructions on how to use it.