LOUISVILLE, Ky. — This month, a Kentucky nonprofit honored the lives of people lost to substance overdose, one black balloon at a time.

Data from the state’s latest drug overdose fatality report shows 1,410 Kentuckians died from a drug overdose in 2024.

Black Balloon Day, organized locally by the nonprofit God’s Gang, aims to make sure those lives are not forgotten.

“That phone call we got was just horrendous,” said Laura Thurman, whose daughter, Morgan, died from fentanyl poisoning in February 2022.

Thurman said Morgan had gone to a friend’s house and experimented with drugs.

“She was just experimenting,” Thurman said. “She just went to a friend’s house, decided to do it, and it was laced.”

Now, Thurman holds on to memories and to Morgan’s phone.

“I have Morgan’s phone and I’ll look at her phone every day,” she said. “We talk about Morgan all the time. We talk about her like she’s still here, and that helps me.”

For the second year in a row, God’s Gang has organized a Black Balloon Day event to remember people who died from an overdose.

“The black balloon just represents the lives that we lost,” co-founder Andrea Deacon said. “And the idea is that you fly them. You don’t have to come here to do it. You can do it at your home. Tie a balloon to a tree, wherever it is. The idea is that it brings awareness to the community.”

One by one, family members released or displayed black balloons, each one symbolizing a loved one whose life ended too soon.

Deacon said they honored the lives of 50 people this year.

For families like Thurman’s, the day offers a way to share their grief publicly and know they are not alone.

“It means that people will remember,” Thurman said. “They remember those who were lost to fentanyl poisoning and to addiction.”

The simple act of releasing or displaying a black balloon, organizers said, helps ease some of the pain left behind after a loss and keeps the conversation about overdose and prevention in the public eye.