The Empty Chair: Until You Know My Story
Sun, Aug 02
|DRE'S Safe Place®
A free, interactive Overdose Awareness Month installation honoring lives, confronting stigma, and creating hope.
Time & Location
Aug 02, 2026, 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM
DRE'S Safe Place®, 6101 E Molloy Rd, East Syracuse, NY 13057, USA
About the event
The chair may be empty. Their story is not.
Throughout August, DRE’S Safe Place is presenting The Empty Chair: Until You Know My Story, a free, interactive community installation created for Overdose Awareness Month.
DRE’S Safe Place was created in memory of my son, Drequan, who died from an accidental overdose in 2015. This is not simply a topic we care about. It is part of the reason DRE’S exists.
When someone dies from an overdose, people can become so focused on how they died that they forget how they lived.
They forget the laughter, personality, dreams, talents, relationships, and the people who still say their name and love them every day.
This installation was created to give grief somewhere to go, challenge the shame and stigma that keep families silent, and honor the whole person behind the statistic.