It rained on Walk day in 2012.
Still, people showed up.
They walked three miles through Arlington in memory of parents, siblings, partners, children and friends who had died.
Among them was Chris Watson.
Chris had set a goal of raising $10,000 for The Children’s Room that year. By the end of the campaign, more than 100 people had contributed, helping him raise more than $15,000.
But Chris had his own reasons for walking.
In the span of several years, three people close to him died.
His friend Jordon. His college roommate and friend Pete. And, in 2008, his mother.
A year after his mother’s death, Chris was looking for a place to volunteer when he found The Children’s Room.
“I almost feel fate led me to The Children’s Room,” he would later say.
Chris began facilitating peer support groups for teens who had experienced the death of a parent or sibling.
He came thinking about what he might be able to give.
He didn’t expect how much he would receive.
Over the years, Chris watched teens who might rarely interact outside the walls of TCR sit together and talk about some of the hardest things in their lives. He watched them listen to one another. Laugh together. Support each other.
The adults were there to facilitate, but Chris learned when to step back.
“We let the teens run it,” he said in 2018. “We really empower them. It’s their story.”
Nearly eight years later, Chris is heading into his 18th year volunteering with TCR.
And he still talks about what the teens have given him.
“They have given me the gift of hope and the courage to share with others my struggles with grief,” Chris recently wrote.
The Walk became part of that story, too.
Chris walked in memory of the people he loved. His family walked with him. And they kept coming back.
By 2018, Chris said his family had participated in the Walk every year for a decade. His daughter had been coming since she was little.
And the circle kept getting wider.
Chris told coworkers about TCR. He told friends and neighbors. His employer matched donations. People he had never met gave after hearing his story.
The Walk wasn’t the only way Chris found to turn that support into action.
In 2019, he ran the Boston Marathon for TCR and raised $35,000.
“The marathon was one of the best days of my life,” Chris remembers.
He also helped make a connection through a neighbor that led to TCR’s first $100,000 grant from the Cummings Foundation.
It started the same way much of Chris’s fundraising had over the years: by talking to people about a place he deeply believed in.
For Chris, the Walk became another way to tell people why TCR mattered.
“Through the walk I do every year, I share, I get an opportunity, through my fundraising activities, to share in the messaging of The Children’s Room and to let people know how important a place like this is.”
Years have passed since those Walks.
This September, as The Children’s Room marks its 30th anniversary, Chris will be walking with us again.
This time, he knows exactly who he’s walking for.
His mother.
Jordon.
Pete.
And the teens who have allowed him to witness what can happen when grieving people don’t have to carry everything alone.
“I am walking so children and families looking for comfort in their time of grief will always have a place welcoming them with open arms at The Children’s Room.”
Thirty years into TCR’s story, there are people who have been walking alongside it for much of the way.
On September 27, we’ll walk together again.
Join us for The Children’s Room Community Walk on September 27 in Arlington.
About This Series: 30 Years, 30 Stories is an ongoing collection of reflections from the community that has shaped The Children’s Room over the past three decades. For 30 years, all of our services have been offered free of charge to grieving children, teens, and families thanks to the generosity of our community. Learn more or support our work at childrensroom.org.