WACO, Texas (KWTX) – May is mental health awareness month, and today in honor of this Klara’s Center for Families held their first ever children’s mental health awareness walk in Waco.
This morning as people walked through Brazos Park East they would have seen encouraging sidewalk messages and helpful signs for those struggling with their mental health.
Tiffany Douglas, the local director of Klara’s Center, says with such a need for mental health awareness now they wanted to do a fundraiser that also got the community involved.
“We try to do something every May for children’s mental health and for mental health awareness month in May so we’re doing a walk just for awareness and have just the conversation about what mental health looks like for our children and what our families go through,” Douglas explained.
Claudia Copeland, the school program director with Klara’s Center, says their hope for this walk was to help people relax but also educate them about mental health.
“We have coping skills, different statistics for substance abuse and things like that,” Copeland said, “we just want you to walk along and kind of do some deep breathing and help with those anxious feelings, and then just kind of learn about what mental health is and how you can apply those different coping skills to your life.”
Today’s event also featured lots of other groups and vendors, like Loyal Hood, who came out to help support. Owner Hayden Swearengin also works at Klara’s center, sharing how great it is to see all the resources available to people today.
“You may not be aware of the different resources that are available, and so to have all of those resources in one place is a great place to do it,” Swearengin shared.
Locals Katherine Kiesling and Lissa Haddock say they love seeing something like this in their community, especially after having to overcome their own struggles with mental health.
“When I was eight this wasn’t a thing, it was like okay you have to deal with kind of like what’s going on and then keep going,” Haddock said, “now seeing whole communities coming together and being like ‘hey we’re going to be a part of something and work it out with each other’, that’s awesome to see.”
Ron Kimbell with Heart of Texas Behavioral Health says while the stigma surrounding mental health has decreased in recent years, it’s still there and the need is rising.
“We’re just trying to do everything we can to promote acceptance and awareness and to build up supports for children and make sure everyone understands this is a normal part of being human,” Kimbell explained.
Just over 150 people came out for today’s walk, and organizers say they hope that number continues to grow for many years to come.
Copyright 2025 KWTX. All rights reserved.
