EL PASO - This morning hundreds of people woke up early for a good cause. They walked to show support and raise money for people who have a mental illness.

The El Paso affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness put on the event at Ascarate Park.

Each person who walked raised money that will help pay for services and treatment for patients and their families.

"Often we don't talk about it. We don't recognize what's going on in people's families that is tearing them apart, and we want to bring that out in the open and show people that people recover," Rebecca Willard said.

"My great-grandmother, she has Alzheimer's and right now she's doing ok. She's stable, but like I said this is very important. It affects me, and it affects everybody else. It's important for people to come out and donate," Jair Montford said.

"It's in every family, it's in every community and we have to stop keeping this quiet. We're all part of the same community. Mental illness can be treated. We can recover. We can do better," Eric Willard said.

Participants who raised $100.00 have a chance to win a Southwest Airline ticket in a drawing.