A sighting of Kyndal Ray Edwards bears witness to a man on a mission.
His message, “You Matter,” is with him everywhere he goes; making its way into cities and towns across the country as he puts one foot in front of the other for “Walking Across America” in the name of mental health and recovery.

“I walk in remembrance of our loved ones that are no longer with us due to mental health and/or recovery issues to let everyone know that they will never be forgotten and will always be in our hearts,” Kyndal says. “I walk for the ones that are currently struggling with mental health and/or recovery issues to let them know that there is hope; that we do recover. And that we all have value and purpose.”
To date, Kyndal has walked more than 8,200 miles in over 740 days on his journey to walk to all four corners of the lower 48 U.S. states-to the northwestern point of Washington, to the southwestern point of California, to the southeastern point of Florida, and to the northeastern point of Maine. Kyndal has been trekking across the Mississippi Gulf Coast in May, National Mental Health Awareness Month. He entered Mississippi on May 12, making his first stop in Picayune, MS, as part of his second journey on foot across America.

“We Do Recover” and “You Are Enough” are other motivational phrases Kyndal delivers as he achieves 74 months drug free. He remains determined to share his testimony with everyone he meets along the way and to honor and remember the many lives who have been lost to mental health illnesses and/or recovery issues.
Kyndal has also aligned his mission with fundraising efforts for the nonprofit Addict II Athlete focused on mental health, recovery, education, and recreation. He hopes to benefit anyone who may need to hear his story while also raising money for a good cause. Funds are raised through the purchase of memorabilia including T-shirts, wristbands, bumper stickers and more that Kyndal promotes as he reaches different locations. Every T-shirt is printed in special editions; each bearing 180 names in honor of those lives who were lost to depression and/or addiction. So far, 20 editions of “The Journey of a Lifetime” T-shirt have been distributed with Kyndal now taking submissions of names for the T-shirt’s 21st edition.

Mental health challenges affect 1 in 5 adults each year. After the Covid-19 Pandemic, more people have developed mental health conditions than ever before. Education on mental health has become extremely crucial, and removing the stigma surrounding mental health has never been more important. The seriousness of taking care of our mental health and making it a priority is important enough to be discussed daily. Unfortunately, the stigma surrounding mental health issues causes many people struggling with their mental health to not seek treatment for their conditions and to suffer in silence instead often feeling that the only way out is by suicide. This is why the stigma must be broken and replaced with education, outreach, awareness and advocacy for promoting overall mental health and well-being.

Every year during the month of May, established in 1949 as Mental Health Awareness Month in America by the Mental Health America organization, there are many opportunities for mental health nonprofits, professionals, and advocates to participate in fundraising, outreach, and awareness events to educate on mental health conditions. June is Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month.
Kyndal wants to help in this effort as he continues to advocate for support and celebrate recovery; knowing that every person’s mental health journey is unique and that having a strong support system makes a difference when someone is having mental health struggles.

A native Floridian, as well as a mental health advocate and recovery coach, Kyndal’s walk across America is his opportunity to let others know that they are not alone. In doing so, he has made his way to the Mississippi Gulf Coast; hoofing it first through Picayune in mid-May and mapping his route on through Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, Long Beach, Gulfport, Biloxi, Ocean Springs, Gautier, Pascagoula, and finally reaching Moss Point before crossing his 25th state line into Alabama on May 27.
Visit his social media platforms and witness the movement as Kyndal documents his journey every step of the way, providing encouragement and resources to those seeking help for their mental health.
After struggling with his own mental health, Kyndal made the decision to do something so drastic that it was sure to get the attention needed to help him on his mission of bringing awareness to mental health and recovery. Kyndal decided to walk across America, not once, but twice, “in proxy for all our loved ones who have passed due to mental health and/or recovery issues,” he says.

He has made the decision to help spread awareness by sharing his personal testimony of overcoming his own challenges while also spreading positivity and love to those who need to hear it the most.
“I don’t just walk because people are losing their lives or because people are struggling,” Kyndal said. “I walk because in the last 18 years of my life I have tried to take my life twice. I have overdosed. I have been in county jail 11 times and in prison twice. I am 32 years old, and I have 13 felony convictions and a bunch of misdemeanors on my record. I am a firm believer that my past does not define me and that there is always hope.”
Kyndal started his Walk Across America on January 1, 2022, when he put his feet in the Atlantic Ocean in Jacksonville, Fla. As of May 2025, while celebrating more than six years drug free, he continues his walk from coast to coast for a second time.

“Now, it has been a dream of mine to walk across America since 2013 when I heard about somebody else doing it, and it had nothing to do with mental health and recovery,” said Kyndal. “It just wasn’t meant for me to walk at that time, until I changed my life, and until it was about mental health and recovery.
“So, after two and a half years of a five-year prison sentence, something clicked in my head for me to change my life. My last year on that five-year prison sentence I remembered that I wanted to walk across America. Ended up getting out of prison November 6, 2021, and took off less than two months later.”
Kyndal, a.k.a “A Walking Testimony,” has gained a substantial following on social media since he began his journey several years ago. Online Kyndal shares live videos of his walk, as well as in-person meet and greets so that he can connect even more with the people in the communities he walks through. As Kyndal walks on his journey, he is honked at or stopped daily for people who connect with him and just want to say thank you for what he is doing. “A Walking Testimony” has touched many lives and helped many people who struggle with mental health and/or addiction or have loved ones that struggle or may no longer be with us today. While coming through Mississippi, local supporters and followers of “A Walking Testimony” showed up at his meet and greets excited and honored to meet the humble man that is doing his part in bringing more awareness to mental health and recovery.

Kyndal’s meet and greet in Bay St. Louis attracted residents, many of whom have been following his journey on social media, who stopped by the Angel Tree to take photos, share stories, and even shed a few tears.
One local, Lylie Nichols of Bay St. Louis, says she is very happy about Kyndal and his mission because there is not enough awareness. “When I saw that he was doing this I was like, I have to meet this guy, because there is so much in the world today, even in my family, you know,” says Nichols. “So, I am aware. I am a Veteran. I am an advocate for children as I have been a CASA Advocate for eight years in Hancock County, so I am just kind of related to it a little bit.”

Another local resident says she has been following “A Walking Testimony” for about six months. When asked what she thought about his journey and what he was doing, Destiny Bowen, Bay St. Louis, said, “I think it’s absolutely amazing. My brother struggled with addiction for over 20 years, which led to him having drug-induced schizophrenia, and then he eventually committed suicide in 2022. And he raised me. That was my whole world.” Bowen goes on to say, “I’ve struggled myself more on the lines of alcohol and some pills, but that was mostly because I had mental health issues. I still do, obviously they don’t just disappear, but a lot of my mental health issues were because I couldn’t have a child. I tried for eight years, and once I found out I was pregnant I was done with absolutely everything I had ever touched. I have not had a single drink in over three years, almost four, next month. I still have mental health issues, I mean, things still happen, but 99% of my issues are gone.”

As Kyndal continued walking toward Biloxi, he held a meet and greet at Jones Park in Gulfport where more local supporters showed up to have their chance to talk to “A Walking Testimony.” Hayley Landrum, D’Iberville, has been following “A Walking Testimony” for about the past three weeks. Landrum says, “I think his mission is inspiring, and it definitely makes people stop to look and give mental health and recovery the awareness he is seeking. We can all play a part to help reduce the stigma on mental health by continuing to have conversations about it and spread awareness in different ways.
“I think mostly everyone knows someone or is close, in some capacity, to someone struggling with mental health and/or addiction recovery. I believe it’s important we all take the time to educate ourselves on what we can do to help assist someone struggling with these things. You never know what knowledge can save yourself or a loved one.”

Cynthia Shields, Long Beach, knows all about the importance of bringing awareness to mental health as she is involved with NAMI Coastal Mississippi, a local nonprofit organization of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “This is such an amazing thing that he is doing. I wanted to tell him that he matters too, so I did. I am very grateful that I could walk with him a block or two and talk for a minute or two. I told him he is not alone,” says Shields. Shields has been following Kyndal’s journey for about six days since he was walking in Bay St. Louis and walking into Pass Christian. “He’s new to me, but this topic is not. It’s a great mission. I share the desire to bring attention and awareness to this problem of how we perceive mental illnesses and our mental health. I just do it in a different way. I support what he is doing.”

Shields also has her thoughts on the stigma on mental health saying, “Our brain is our most vital organ. It influences or directly sustains all our other organs. Our creator protected it with its own blood supply separate from the rest of the body so infections can’t get to it as easily. Just because we can’t measure our feelings, we can still measure the hormones, enzymes, and other chemicals it produces and now they can map its functions. It’s a mega computer that we can’t live without. Why is it embarrassing to care for that vital organ? Why shouldn’t we?” Shields also said, “I hope for the day when we ask, ‘Who’s your therapist?’ just like we ask, ‘What gym did you join?’ Diet, rest, activity level, purpose and interests, and a support system are all parts of good general health. So is our attitude.”

Mental endurance is important to have when completing a mission such as this. Kyndal says, “At the end of the day I told myself that I was going to go walk across America, and I am physically capable and mentally capable, and it’s a dream of mine. So, to sit there and say I am going to do it; it would be so messed up for me to give up in the middle of it because – even though drugs aren’t involved or anything anymore – that would just kind of coincide with the past when I used to tell people that I was going to go do this and then not do it at all, or start and stop. I want to see it out to completion. And unless, Lord willing, something bad were to happen I want to see this through to completion.”

While Kyndal asks for everyone to follow “A Walking Testimony” on social media, he reminds people that he is walking for mental health and recovery. And while interest is growing, the journey is not about how many people he can reach but it’s more about the bigger the number of people reached means that is how many people believe that healing is possible, recovery is real, and that we all matter. “I ask people to help share the journey because that is how we bring awareness and that is how we change the world. And it has nothing to do with me,” says Kyndal. “Recently I just went and ran a 5K in Tampa, Fla., and I had a “You Matter” sign I was holding and not everybody knew who I was walking across America, you know, but so many people stopped and said something about that sign. And I had a buddy with me, and I said ‘Hey, I want you to catch the importance of this right now because all these people that are stopping and saying something about this sign, they don’t know I’m walking across America. You could hold this sign, and anybody could hold that sign, and get the same type of reaction because people just need to see that kind of positivity. That’s what I really, really enjoy about it.”

“I just want people to know that they matter and that they are enough. You know people who are struggling with recovery, having a support system is amazing, but nobody can actually change it for you. I want people to know that you have to want it, and once you want it, it’s a lot easier than you think. It’s not just easy and it’s not just going to happen the way you want it, not exactly or instantly, but it is possible. And life is so much better once you push through,” says Kyndal. “You never know what anybody is going through. I understand that it’s easy to get frustrated at people, and this is me preaching to myself too, but we don’t ever know what anybody’s going through. Even if they tell you what’s going on, it doesn’t mean that they told you everything. You can’t see inside somebody’s head. So, and this again is me talking to myself, show each other grace and mercy, and show yourselves grace and mercy, and show each other love.”

Kyndal has less than 475 miles to walk to finish his second Coast to Coast journey across America for mental health awareness and recovery. He spent the last several days of May and on into the middle of June walking across Alabama. Early June called Kyndal back to Baton Rouge, La., where he was invited to speak at a NAMI Louisiana conference on June 5. Kyndal drove a rental car from Mobile, Ala., to participate in the event before heading back to catch the ferry in Dauphin Island, Ala., to cross over to Fort Morgan and continue walking eastward on to Gulf Shores and Orange Beach in Alabama. Kyndal is currently walking through Florida.

Kyndal’s ending destination for the United States portion of his journey, as of right now, will be in Lubec, Maine, which is the most northeastern point of the lower 48 states. This is his second coast to coast crossing, and this is part three of the journey. Part two was the entire West Coast from the Northwestern point to the Southwestern point.
Kyndal hopes to inspire others in their struggles to make positive changes in their lives. You can follow “A Walking Testimony” on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Kyndal’s support of nonprofit Addict II Athletes focusing on mental health, recovery, education, and recreation has raised over $13,000 of his $50,000 goal, to date. Tax refundable donations can be made by going to https://donorbox.org/a-walking-testimony-fundraiser. To support the mission, T-shirts and banners have been made with over 1,980 names, and sadly more to come, in remembrance of loved ones lost. Bumper stickers and bracelets are also available with donations.

If you or a loved one are struggling with mental health and/or addiction, resources are available and there are people standing by to help. Connect with a trained specialist via the NAMI Helpline, call 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), text NAMI to 62640, or email helpline@nami.org. For assistance locally, contact NAMI Coastal Mississippi serving Hancock, Harrison, Pearl River, Stone, George, and Jackson counties, by phone at 601-899-9058 or email to coastalms@namims.org. Lifeline counselors also provide 24/7 support to people across the United States in crisis via the National Mental Health Helpline by calling or texting 988.

Ashley Prima

Author, Public Speaker, Multimedia Journalist, Publisher, Writing Consultant, Blogger, and Podcast Host.