Healing Walk for substance poisoning planned today through St. Paul

The organizers of a healing walk last year have an initiative happening today in St. Paul.

In 2022, Chantel Gladue organized a healing walk from Bonnyville to Edmonton to raise awareness about families, especially Indigenous families, who are losing people to drug addiction and substance poisoning.

Their goal is to end the stigma and call for change from our leadership and communities.

Originally planning to walk from Lloydminster to Edmonton, however due to schedules, they’ve decided to make their annual walk into a day within St. Paul.

“My group thought of the importance of raising awareness within our communities of the Lakeland area — the seven nations surround Lakeland and it is our communities that are being negatively impacted by this crisis,” said Gladue in a written statement.

Gladue will be joined by Ashleigh Cardinal, Tigra-Lee Campbell, Andrea Steinhauer, and Carmen Renee, the day begins at 8:30am with a pipe ceremony at Mannawanis Friendship Centre.

The walk gets going at 10:00am at Cornerstone Co-op, where they will head to the UFO Landing Pad.

Afterwards, there are opportunities for people to share their stories as well as a barbeque and potluck.