JERSEYVILLE - The Jersey County Against Drugs Coalition (JCADC) and Jersey Community Hospital (JCH) are teaming up for the return of their Community Resource Fair, a free public event that will feature a variety of vendors with drug addiction prevention, recovery, treatment, and support resources - and also the chance for attendees to win Apple AirPods and other great prizes.

The Community Resource Fair will be held on Thursday, March 9 from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at the Susnig Center, located at 401 Mound St. in Jerseyville. Lauren Savoie with JCH appeared on a recent episode of Our Daily Show! on Riverbender.com and said there are currently about 15 vendors and counting signed up for the event with a range of services and information.

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“There’s going to be some counseling agencies, there are some churches, some other mental health agencies - we’re also going to have a booth there for our Medication Assisted Treatment Clinic to talk about treatment, there’s going to be some recovery agencies to talk about what different pathways to recovery look like,” Savoie said. “I think we’re going to have a pretty good gamut.”

Attendees will have the chance to win a pair of Apple AirPods, a 1-month membership to the JCH Wellness Center, or a $25 gift card to Jersey County Business Association businesses. Jersey Community High School students will have a chance to win free coffee from the Books and Brew coffee shop at JCHS.

Not only is the event free to the public, it’s also free for organizations or businesses to set up a booth. While the event is substance abuse related, they’re also looking for vendors related to housing, food, and more, because “people need resources holistically,” Crawford said. Savoie added that they’re still accepting vendor forms; contact lsavoie@jch.org for more information.

Rita Robertson, leader of the JCADC, said the event has proven helpful to the community and vendors alike in years past.

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“We were able to do this three years ago,” Robertson said. “They were very thankful, especially the vendors themselves because there are vendors out there that I didn’t even know about.”

“Sometimes these vendors have great resources and they don’t know how to capture the people they’re trying to help,” Sarah Crawford with JCH added. “If a church has something they want to offer, it’s like well, you keep offering it to the same 12 kids that show up to Youth Group on Wednesday, but they don’t know how to get to the rest of the kids - so this is a great opportunity for them to reach people and for us to connect the need to the resources.”

Robertson, Savoie, and Crawford all said they were looking forward to the event and encouraged the public to come out.

“Come stay a few minutes, come stay the whole time,” Robertson said.

“This is a free event - free for vendors and free for participants,” Crawford added. “So please, we want many people there and we’re excited to see you!”

To learn more about the Jersey County Against Drugs Coalition, visit their Facebook page. The full interview with Robertson, Savoie, and Crawford is available below from Riverbender.com:

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