“I’ll be up all night for Krista Marie”
PV senior participates in suicide prevention walk
A couple of years ago, Kellie Palermo was going through a rough patch in her life. Krista Marie Schonberg was there for her throughout the ordeal.
“She helped me to become a better person and she told me never to give up,” Palermo said. “In my mind, she fought her battles so I had to fight mine.”
Palermo, a senior at Pascack Valley, and Schonberg, her brother’s babysitter, both met the challenges life presented to them by feeding off of each other’s positivity.
“Krista was the funniest person that I had ever met. She would walk into a room and everyone would light up. Her friends would go, ‘Hey, it’s Krista!’ She was so creative,” Palermo said.
Unfortunately, their relationship only lasted for 12 years of Palermo’s life after Schonberg suddenly took her life.
This week is National Suicide Prevention Week, a part of the annual National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month that takes place every September. This month especially, Palermo will miss Schonberg and the memories they shared.
Kellie and her mother, Kristine Palermo, also had been talking about participating in a suicide prevention fundraiser for some time. This June, they took part in the annual Out of the Darkness Walk.
The Out of the Darkness Walk is held by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention across the country in various communities. Kellie and Kristine Palermo participated in the organization’s New York City walk. They had first decided to participate this past January. Prior to the event, they had raised $5,000.
Up until she was 12, Palermo lived in Massachusetts with her family and Schonberg. Five years ago in August, the Palermo family packed up and moved to New Jersey, leaving Schonberg behind. A week later, Schonberg committed suicide.
“If six years ago, you would have told me that Krista would commit suicide, I would have told you that you are crazy,” Kellie Palermo said. “Now, it is always there. Everyday we wake up and think about her. Sometimes I would post on Facebook that I miss her. She was the happiest person that I’ve known in my entire life.”
This isn’t the first time suicide has hit Kellie Palermo’s family. Two years before Schonberg took her life, Kellie Palermo’s uncle, Chuck Linder, committed suicide as well.
During the walk, shirts were given out to participants, who then wrote who they were walking for on the back. The event began with an opening ceremony in which different speakers spoke about the people that they have lost to suicide in their lives.
The walk was 16 miles long. The participants all began in the same place at 5 p.m. and walked across the city until they reached the finish line. Everyone finished at their own pace. The Palermos finished at 2 a.m.
“To me, really, it was just to raise as much awareness as I could,” Kellie Palermo said. “Everyone was cheering us on. The people around us were watching us. Some people would stop and ask what we were walking for and then ask if they could donate money for our cause against suicide.”
According to Kellie Palermo, the walk’s best feature was that the participants could see that they were not alone in their suffering. Everyone participating had been through similar ordeals. At one point during the walk, the Palermos met a brother and a sister that had lost their father to suicide.
In the future, the Palermos are going to continue to donate to the Out of the Darkness Walk. They might also participate in upcoming Out of the Darkness Walk in Washington D.C.
Additionally, since the passing of Krista Schonberg, the Palermos have been donating to a foundation in her name called The Annual KMS Gold Mini Tourna-Mint, which accepts donations from anyone.
“What happened to Krista just goes to show that you never know what other people are going through,” Kellie Palermo said.
