Walk Across Iowa was started by Karen Smith for mental health awareness (ask her what year). So far Karen Smith has done two walks across Iowa and soon will do her third and final one. Karen Smith will do the walk across Iowa on June 12th and raise money for Community Crisis Services and food bank, Foundation 2, United action for Youth.
The idea for Walk Across Iowa started because of her son, C, who was hospitalized due to his struggles with his mental health, and her younger son, Noah, who struggles with anxiety and depression.
When Smith first got the idea to start Walk Across Iowa she was sitting by herself in her rocking chair while C was in the hospital. Karen was thinking about ways to show more support so he didn’t feel like a burden for talking to her about what he’s going through.
“[It] really struck me and bothered me that he hadn’t come to me to tell me that he was going through a bad time like he was really struggling, and he hadn’t told me that, and I could have maybe helped him through that,” Smith said.
Smith wanted to do something big to show support for her sons and raise awareness for people who were in similar situations.
When first starting, Smith tried to see if anyone had done something similar and found that Jeff Miller had been walking across Iowa to raise awareness for Alzheimer’s. She then did research on how to walk across Iowa and found that training for marathons was the best way to get started. To prepare, Smith researched what supplies she’d need, schedules and what route she was going to take.
“I just started thinking about, ‘Okay, what am I going to need? I’m going to need a backpack. Where am I going to spend the night? What medical supplies am I going to need?’” Smith said.
During her walks, people would frequently stop and ask her what she was doing. “You don’t often see a person walking down the highway with a backpack and a big sun hat and all that,” Smith said.
When people did stop and ask her about her Walk Across Iowa she explained how it raises awareness for mental health.
“That was my opportunity to kind of start up a conversation with them about, you know what I was doing,” Smith said.
Smith runs a Facebook blog where she shares her family’s stories that she shows others when on her walks.
”I don’t even have, like 500 followers, but still, it’s enough that I feel like I’ve given a voice to some people,” Smith said.
Some ways people can show support for mental health is starting GoFundMe’s or going to protests. Other ways could be small things like complimenting someone, helping them find mental health resources or acknowledging someone’s feelings.
“Well, you might not be able to fix the problem for them, but you can just be there with them. You know, sometimes they just need somebody,” Smith said.
Overall, Smith has shown support to, not only her family, but to the people of Iowa. While this might be her final walk across Iowa, Karen Smith’s support will not be forgotten.
