If you’ve seen one of the six needle drop boxes located in downtown Peterborough, you’d probably agree they aren’t particularly attractive. Intended for the secure and safe disposal of used needles (“sharps”), the mailbox-like drop boxes are painted bright yellow.
Now, thanks to a joint initiative by PARN-Your Community AIDS Resource Network and Artspace, the sharps boxes are getting a makeover. This past spring, the two organizations put out a call for proposals for local artists to submit creative designs to turn the boxes into works of public art, while supporting harm reduction.
Local artist Bethany LeBlonc recently completed her design on the sharps box located beside the trail at the King Street entrance to Millennium Park, near the Silver Bean Cafe.
“This has been a really fun project, and also very close to my heart,” LeBlonc writes on Instagram. “Many people struggle with mental illness & addiction due to trauma and/or socio economic status. This can lead to homelessness, and further distress.”
LeBlonc’s design is not only colourful, but practical. She painted a map onto the sharps box to highlight social support resources available in downtown Peterborough such as Brock Mission and the YES Shelter for Youth and Families.
She says she did it “as a thank you to those who work to help our community, to know where to seek help if you need it, and hopefully encourage you to share with friends and strangers where they can go to seek help.”
To help raise awareness of available support services, LeBlonc also includes a link to a Google Map on her Instagram. The map lists resources and locations for those who may the services.
“We are all just people,” LeBlonc writes. “Please be kind and help one another.”
This isn’t the first time LeBlonc has created art in the context of social issues. In January, her paintings of local social issues such homelessness were on exhibit at Simply Delicious in downtown Peterborough. To see other samples of LeBlonc’s art, visit her Instagram account at @bethany.leblonc.
Peterborough’s needle drop box program was expanded in November 2018 in a partnership between PARN, Peterborough Public Health, the Canadian Mental Health Association – Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge (CMHA-HKPR), and the City of Peterborough.
Four boxes were installed, with one behind the Peterborough Library, one along the Millennium Trail, one on the eastern side of the Otonabee River near the train bridge, and one in front the One Roof program at 99 Brock Street.
The four new boxes were in addition to the needle drop boxes in front of the CMHA-HKPR office at 466 George Street and the fire station at 210 Sherbrooke Street.
“Our experience tells us that people who use injection drugs want to dispose of their supplies safely,” said former PARN executive director Kim Dolan when the program was expanded. “Hundreds of people come through the doors of our agency every year to return used syringes.”
“By placing these boxes at various points in the city, we will provide more options for people to return their used equipment and further reduce the instances when needles are found in public spaces.”
