ZEELAND, Mich. — Nearly 200 people flocked to Zeeland East's soccer field Saturday morning to participate in the third-annual Love and Lean Walk for Mental Health Awareness. The three-mile walk started at the soccer field, traveling through the wetlands and beyond.
The event that has gifted mindfulness and compassion to many has origins rooted in sorrow. Lori Kroll started the event after losing her teenage son Zach to suicide in 2015.
“He hid it very silently and his struggle was not open to anybody until it was too late,” Kroll said.
Kroll said she got the idea to start the event after Zach came to her in a dream.
“It was his voice saying ‘love and lean…’ which means love yourself and know that your pain is real, but so is hope and lean on others. Whether it’s family, or friends or professionals, because the more you lean, the stronger your mental health becomes,” Kroll said.
The walk kicks off Zeeland’s ‘be nice. Community Action Month’ and raises money to fund the ‘be nice.’ program in schools. Christy Buck, Executive Director of the Mental Health Foundation of West Michigan, predicts this year’s walk has raised around $10,000.
According to Buck, the program has reached 180 schools, including all Zeeland schools.
“It’s two simple words with a period, but it’s bigger than that. It’s an action plan to notice, invite, challenge and empower,” Buck said.
Kroll said while the progress is something to celebrate, it’s a bittersweet moment for her as a mother.
“I truly believe that something like that would have saved Zach. There was nothing really in place, and so we’re just trying to do everything we can to help others, so they don’t have to go through this,” she said.
Kroll uses the walk to pay tribute to Zach, describing him as witty, quiet and caring.
“Zach will always live in our hearts and we just feel like this something that we can do in his honor and his memory… On his gravestone we have engraved, ‘forever smiling in our hearts,’ because that’s how we remember him,” she said.
The Mental Health Foundation of West Michigan will host ‘Stomp out the Stigma’ on May 18 in Grand Rapids to raise funds for 'be nice.' To learn more or get involved, click here.
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