WACO, Texas — It's been more than a week since the deadly school shooting in Uvalde. Central Texas communities are now coming together to show support for the grieving families.
A prayer vigil will take place at the South Waco Community Center Thursday at 6 p.m. There will be music, prayer, a reading of the victims' names, and a balloon release.
"For them, it's never going to stop, so we shouldn't let it stop for us either," co-host Louis Garcia said. "Losing a child hurts; it doesn't matter how old they are."
Garcia lost his daughter a few years ago and is now co-hosting this event to help the families dealing with pain he knows all too well.
"It's going to carry on forever for them," he said. "It's something they're going to have to deal with all their lives. Not only the grown-ups but these little kids that it happened to them also."
The vigil comes exactly one week after a similar one took place in Killeen. Organizer Lolita Gilmore told 25 News they felt prayer was all they had to offer.
"Empathy grabbed me," she said. "We began to look, and all we could do was literally pray and just say 'God help them through this situation right here.'"
As more shootings grab national headlines, support from central Texas continues to pour out for Uvalde.
"It gives them a little comfort, I think, to know that people care," Garcia said. "That they care about what happened to them even though they weren't involved. Just knowing people have compassion enough to care about them."
