Surveying for a Cause: JHA Team Supports Trail of Truth

On August 15th, JHA Survey Project Leader Nikolas Decker and Survey Technicians Ethan Hunt and Garrett Fitch participated in JHA’s Volunteer Time Off program by putting their surveying expertise to work for a powerful cause. They volunteered to lay out the lines for the Memorial Cemetery for the Truth Pharm Trail of Truth event on August 16^th in Binghampton, NY—an artistic, healing, and advocacy experience honoring lives lost to substance use. Their contribution helped set the stage for a moving tribute combing art, remembrance, and a call for change. 

Nik’s description of the experience:

We went to the Federal Courthouse located in the center square of downtown Binghamton to help lay out the lines of mock gravestones to be placed on the courthouse lawn by volunteers for the event. We utilized our GPS equipment and survey knowledge with a tape to accomplish the layout. The organizers were very pleased with our expertise and commented on how amazing it was that we were able to accomplish the goal so quickly and that it would make their job way easier than in the past to keep clean straight lines even when they intersect a tree or monument in the lawn.

I did this because the Truth Pharm Executive Director Alexis Pleus reached out to Joe Hunt, and he passed the VTO service opportunity along with the offer to pay a crew to do the work. I happen to have a personal connection with the mission of the organization to reduce the harm caused by substance abuse and how our society responds. Growing up my mom worked for a drug and alcohol counseling agency which exposed me to the world of opioids and the impact that it was having on our communities. I learned through that exposure that the way in which we handle ourselves and the stigma around substance abuse can have a very powerful impact on the people that are struggling with addiction, especially when they may be on the cusp of seeking help for themselves. This coupled with personal experiences of friends and family members struggling with addiction and a couple cases of self-harm due to those struggles furthered my thinking that this would be a worthy cause for us to support.

Learn more at trailoftruth.org.