"PWID have the opportunity to dispose properly of used syringes, access sterile syringes and are offered referrals/resources,” says Lisa Raville, executive director of the Harm Reduction Action Center. The Harm Reduction Action Center is an organization that provides resources to people who inject drugs (PWID). “I searched around: 'What are the organizations that advocate for people like this?' I came across Denver’s Harm Reduction Action Center, which is a nonprofit.” “In the name of his death, I wanted there to be some awareness around this terrible epidemic in our country that obviously affected me to the core,” Caroline says. "When I moved out here to live with him in 2015, we started going to these open mics at the Squire Lounge, and from there, the people who were organizing those had one around the city almost every night of the week."Īfter Thomas passed away, Caroline wanted to do something to honor his love of music and bring awareness to the fentanyl crisis, and in September 2021, she hosted the Thomas Edinger Memorial Concert at the Roxy on Broadway. ![]() “He was very innately talented… could just pick up any instrument and hear a tune and be able to just play," Caroline says. But his music is what many, including Caroline, remember most about him. He also worked for the Blue Bench, a nonprofit helping victims of sexual assault, and Forests Forever, a preservation organization, and knocked on countless doors as a canvasser. He was politically active and was part of a phone bank for the Biden campaign in 2020. "He was pretty high-functioning."Ĭaroline remembers Thomas as someone very involved in his community. “He was secretly buying street oxy, and no one really knew," she says. ![]() Caroline says he was a secret user, and most of his friends and family weren’t aware of his drug use. In November of 2020, Thomas died of an accidental fentanyl overdose at age 33. ![]() She remembers singing while he played his acoustic guitar on camping trips (he knew 386 different songs to cover) and collaborating with other musicians around the city together. Music is what bonded them as siblings when they lived together in Denver. Caroline Edinger and her brother Thomas could speak to the power music has to connect and heal people.
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