{"id":297186,"date":"2026-05-17T16:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T16:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/297186\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T16:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T16:01:13","slug":"hundreds-gather-for-benefit-supporting-two-central-texas-teens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/297186\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds gather for benefit supporting two Central Texas teens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">WACO, Texas (KWTX) &#8211; Saturday night the Lee Lockwood Library was filled with people there to support Walker Carroll and Colton Young, two Central Texas teens who have both experienced something unimaginable this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">On Feb. 6, 13-year-old Colton was diagnosed with leukemia, and just a few hours later 16-year-old Walker was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kwtx.com\/2026\/02\/10\/central-texas-teen-hospitalized-with-severe-injuries-after-being-hit-by-pickup-truck-while-riding-his-bike\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">almost killed in a hit and run<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Since that day the community has surrounded both their families, putting together the Ride Strong with Walker and Colton benefit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">While Walker has made a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kwtx.com\/2026\/04\/19\/teen-hit-by-pickup-truck-while-biking-returns-home-after-months-recovery\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">miraculous recovery<\/a> so far, he still has a long road ahead with rehab. Colton is now going through chemo, the treatment taking its toll on him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Both their parents say as hard as this has been they\u2019re grateful for all the support.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThere is about 600 people here and I\u2019m going to tell you, I think soon after the diagnosis it was laid on someone\u2019s heart and\u2026 I mean a big team of committee have worked overtime hours to making sure this was just the very best for Colton and Walker,\u201d Moore shared.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cTo see the outpouring of folks that we don\u2019t even know who have given their time, who have given their resources, their money\u2026 it\u2019s inspiring and it certainly is reinstituting in me a little hope in humanity,\u201d Carroll added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Walker was at the benefit, surprising everyone with a performance on his guitar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Colton was at home resting, but he was still able to say hi to everyone through FaceTime.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 KWTX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WACO, Texas (KWTX) &#8211; Saturday night the Lee Lockwood Library was filled with people there to support Walker&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[108210,108211,108212,108213,27,29,28,65002],"class_list":["post-297186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-central-texas-community-benefit","tag-colton-young","tag-hit-and-run-recovery","tag-teen-leukemia-diagnosis","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-walker-carroll"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}