JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — For Kyndal Ray Edwards, life hasn’t always been easy. Prison time, struggles with mental health, and substance abuse have been long ongoing personal battles for Kyndal, but six years ago, he decided to put one foot in front of the other and make a change for the better.
“In the last 18 years of my life, I have tried to take my life twice. I have overdosed. I’ve been in county jail 11 times, in prison twice,” Kyndal explained Sunday.
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“But I had changed my life on April 12th, 2019, while I was sitting at the Baker [County] reentry center right there in Sanderson, Florida. So I was pushing 30 months drug-free while I wasn’t working. I said, I wanna go walk across America, and I wanna do it for mental health and recovery.”
On Sunday morning, Kyndal completed a cross-country walk that started in 2022 from Jacksonville Beach, to Long Beach and Cape Flattery, Washington, to Imperial Beach, California, and all the way back to the Jacksonville Beach pier.
For three years, Kyndal has been camping, finding budget hotels, and relying on nothing but the kindness of strangers.
The journey has been funded through simply telling his story on social media and selling merchandise - all looking to raise funds for the mental health organization Addicts to Athletes, and share one life-changing message: “You Matter.”
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“I’ve stood on the side of roads and held this sign, or I’ve walked down the road, and people saw this cart and pulled over and would just shed tears and be like, ‘Hey, can I give you a hug? I was on my way home to take my life today. I needed to see that sign’,” Kyndal shared Sunday morning before the final stretch of his walk to the Jacksonville Beach pier.
Now Kyndal says it’ll be time for a little bit of rest before continuing his journey up and down the United States east coast, continuing to push the message of mental health and hope to save lives one step at a time.
“Everything we do, whether it’s days I’m walking or days that I’m not, we’re always focused on mental health and recovery,” Kyndal highlighted. “Always focused on letting people know that they matter and trying to spread as much love, kindness, and positivity as we can.”
So far, Kyndal has raised more than $17,000 for Addicts to Athletes by walking cross-country and spreading a simple message of positivity and hope. You can find that fundraiser and give back by clicking the link here.
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