By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Former Mayor Bruno “Ralphy” Lozano is inviting the community to join him in raising awareness of post-traumatic stress disorder by participating in a 5K walk/run.
The event is set for 8 a.m. Saturday, June 24, at the Buena Vista Park pavilion off Fox Drive. Those who’d like to participate are asked to register online at delrioptsdawareness@gmail.com or in person from 7 a.m. to 7:45 a.m. Saturday, June 24, before the start of the run/walk.
Lozano announced the event during the citizen comments portion of the June 13 meeting of the Del Rio City Council.
Lozano began his presentation with a compliment to the city manager and city staff.
“I want to first and foremost thank the city for doing an extra awesome, amazing job at keeping the city parks clean. I want to thank all of the city staff and employees that go out there, especially in this heat right now. I just want to make sure that they stay hydrated as they watch me run along the creek and in Buena Vista Park and all the other parks we have here. Thank you for doing such a great job,” Lozano said.
Lozano then spoke about the reason for his visit to the council meeting.
“I’ve put a flyer in front of you to announce an event for PTSD awareness, a 5K run/walk that I am doing. It’s scheduled for June 24, and you can register before the event in person or online on my Facebook page,” Lozano said.
He told the council he believes Del Rio has faced its share of collective trauma as a community from a variety of events over the past few years.
“We’ve had a crisis with immigration, with an ice storm, with hailstorms, with having the Uvalde school massacre so close to us, from which many of us were affected directly,” he said.
“PTSD is not just something that happens to veterans of the military, although I am a veteran, and I have my own PTSD and trauma that I carry with me. I want to extend an invitation to the entire community. All of us know someone who has experienced some kind of trauma, whether it be from a sexual assault, a natural disaster, an economic crisis, the list can go on and on,” Lozano added.
Lozano invited the council and Mayor Al Arreola to share news of the PTSD awareness run/walk with their friends and family members.
“If you can come and walk, you’ll have on big supporter, my mom, who’ll be out there walking the 5K with you all if you decide to join in, and I know she will appreciate it,” Lozano said.
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Contact the author at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
