Kerr Kids: a military helicopter flew over, and a mother decided her children needed somewhere to play
The operating model is deliberate and worth understanding: Kerr Kids is a stay-and-play facility. Parents do not drop children off and leave. They stay and play alongside their kids. Chavez described watching something she did not expect.
Alyssa Chavez was watching military rescue helicopters fly over the Hill Country in July 2025 when she understood what was missing.
Her children needed somewhere to go that was not outside. Somewhere safe, contained, and joyful, while the world outside looked like what it was — a disaster zone.
“I just didn’t want my children around that,” she said Monday on The Lead Live’s Nonprofit Week. “Give them a place to kind of let loose, be kids.”
Chavez founded Kerr Kids as a 100% free indoor play space immediately after the 2025 flood. The idea was straightforward: children needed an emotional outlet and the outside world could not provide one. The response was immediate. With the help of realtor and board president Sam Carroll, the organization has secured a permanent 3,000-plus square foot home at 20 Junction Highway, in the former Julie’s Event Center.
The operating model is deliberate and worth understanding: Kerr Kids is a stay-and-play facility. Parents do not drop children off and leave. They stay and play alongside their kids. Chavez described watching something she did not expect.
“The parents stay and play,” she said. “And I think the coolest thing we’ve seen from that is how engaged the parents are. They’re not on their phones. They’re getting into it with their kids.”
The space currently features climbing walls, giant blue blocks, Legos, and craft stations. An Imagination and Literacy Hub for sensory-sensitive and calming play is in development. The organization’s most ambitious long-term plan is a “Tiny Town” — a miniature replica of Kerr County, complete with a functional Rails Cafe and Arcadia Live, designed to spark imaginative play rooted in the actual local community children are growing up in.
The second annual Day of Play fundraiser, held Aug. 15, drew over 400 attendees — featuring a giant Nerf battle that apparently did not go unnoticed.
Author
Related Articles
All Hands and Hearts: ‘Flash flooding typically doesn’t go for 20 miles’
The organization is working in close collaboration with Texas State University and San Antonio regional VOAD — Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters — networks to develop and share mitigation education more broadly.
Light on the Hill: 469 households reached, 200 more this week, and a food pantry Monday morning
Palmer appeared as the opening guest of Nonprofit Week’s final day to describe an organization that has been in continuous disaster response mode since July 4, 2025 — and is, by her own honest assessment, running a marathon with no finish line in sight.
Reach Global: ‘People over projects’ — and a daughter born in a baptistry at the peak of the flood
Reach Global Crisis Response was founded by Mark Lewis during Hurricane Katrina after he observed something most disaster relief organizations miss: survivors often experience their deepest emotional trauma not during the disaster but after — when the crews leave, the house goes quiet, and the weight of what happened finally lands. The organization’s entire model is built to address that gap.
Comments (0)
There are no comments on this article.