ATHOL – Going past 416 Main St. in Athol, there is a collage of faces adorning a storefront window – faces you might even recognize.

The people in those pictures range from blue collar workers to white collar professionals, from the homeless to the well-healed. Yet, despite their differences, the faces staring back all have one thing in common. All have fought with addiction, a battle which some of them have lost.

“For Overdose Awareness Month and Recovery Month, we had this idea for this collage of people who are in recovery and also people who have lost their lives to addiction,” said Sarah Collins, North Quabbin Recovery Center Program Director, who also serves as assistant director of the North Quabbin Community Coalition. The NQCC oversees operations of the recovery center.

“So, everybody whose photo is black and white has lost their life as a direct result of addiction,” explained Recovery Connector Liaison Heather Taylor. “Those whose pictures are in color are folks in recovery. The difference of the black and white versus the color is pretty overwhelming; as you can see from the collage, there are more in black and white.”

Taylor added that the collage is made up of “close to 100” pictures.

“The pictures represent a wide variety of folks who have been in recovery in this community as well as in other communities,” said Taylor. “These are not all folks who have walked through our doors necessarily, but they’re all folks who have been impacted by addiction and recovery.”

Asked about feedback on the project, Collins said, “We really wanted to make it a community conversation piece….It will show that addiction is a bigger issue than what people are talking about. There really isn’t anyone who isn’t impacted by addiction in one way or another. This has really been a catalyst for those conversations.”

Collins said the project was led by Taylor and assisted by the community. “This beautiful collage put together with help from other peer specialists really has sparked conversation and feedback.”

Collins said some people approached the NQRC to volunteer their pictures for inclusion in the collage.

“There were those who said, ‘I want to have my picture up there so everyone knows I’ve had my own encounters with substances.’ Others would ask, ‘Do I want to acknowledge that my family member passed away as a result of their struggle?’ Many people have made those decisions for the first time in their lives,” she said. “It’s so powerful.”

Collins added that she, Taylor, and others at the recovery center hope the collage will continue to generate conversations about addiction and recovery in the community, as well as “generate other opportunities where people feel safe in our community – in North Quabbin – saying, ‘Yes, I have overcome addiction with the support of places like the recovery center or the coalition or whoever it may be that made recovery possible. I think the main goal of the collage was that it become a symbol of hope. We’re hoping moving forward that we can put up more pictures – more color pictures – of people in recovery.”

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.