By MADDY VITALE
Michele and Bart Kohan and their two daughters, Payton and Valerie, attend the HERO Walk on the Ocean City Boardwalk every year. They do so to honor the memory of Michele’s sister, Nicole Romanelli, who at 28, was killed by a drunk driver in North Carolina 12 years ago.
On Sunday, the Kohans were among hundreds of people who either lost loved ones to drunken drivers, came to show support for those who did, or were students from area high schools who know that drunken driving must stop.
“We come to keep Nicole’s memory alive and hopefully help a family not suffer the way we did,” Michele Kohan said as she held up a sign saying, “Imagine,” for Nicole’s favorite song, by the Beatles.
Over 350 people registered for the walk and there were 50 sponsors. All proceeds from the event support the campaign’s mission to promote the use of safe and sober designated drivers.
In addition to the walk, there is a 5K run and a ceremony to showcase the sponsors and remember the lives lost.
It has been 22 years since Bill and Muriel Elliott’s son, Navy Ensign John Elliott, was killed by a drunken driver in Salem County. The Egg Harbor Township couple started the HERO Walk 11 years ago, to remember their son and to help other families.
“It’s a labor of love,” Bill Elliott said. “We just hope it helps others. Drinking and driving has to stop.”
Elliott said the HERO Campaign is also putting an emphasis on the dangers of distracted driving.
Prior to the start of the walk, participants were able to look at the new HERO DUI Simulator, which was on display in the Sports & Civic Center.
It is like a video game, has a steering wheel, pedals for gas and brakes and simulates impaired driving to teach students the perils of drunk/drugged and distracted driving, according to a release from the HERO Campaign.
Students from Absegami High School’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) have been participating in the HERO Walk for eight years.
“We feel it is important to promote the use of designated drivers and raise awareness of the dangers of drunk driving so that future tragedies are avoided,” FBLA Advisor Dawn Kosko said.
A memory banner displayed outside of the Sports & Civic Center, where people gathered for the ceremony prior to the walk, is a compelling reminder each year of the lives lost in crashes involving drunken drivers.
Ryan “Rydog” Schleyer, of Hammonton, was just 9 in April 2011 when he died at the hands of a drunken driver in Hamilton Township. Another child was paralyzed as a result of the multi-car crash.
Ryan’s uncle, Jim McCrane, and his wife, April, and their son, Carter, 8, walked in honor of Ryan.
“Drunken driving affects so many lives,” Jim McCrane said as he and the family walked for Team “Rydog.”
“Every year we come out to remember Ryan,” April McCrane noted.
Their son, Carter, never knew Ryan, but April said Carter, whose middle name is Ryan, has heard so much about his late cousin that somehow he feels as if he knew him.
Ryan was an outstanding baseball player. There is even a field named in his honor, the Ryan Schleyer Memorial Field at Hammonton Lake Park.
For the families who have lost loved ones to drunken drivers, the pain never goes away.
“It feels like forever ago, and sometimes it feels like yesterday that we lost Nicole,” Bart Kohan reflected. “Today is a hard day for us. It just brings everything right back. But we come for Nicole. We will never forget the call when they told us she was in a bad accident and then right after we got a call that she had passed.”
Payton Kohan, 21, and her sister, Valerie, 17, don’t remember much about their aunt because they were too young. But they know that she was kind and good.
“I’m the oldest of the grandkids and I feel like I remember her the most,” Payton said. “I feel as though as years go by, it is important to help others and she should not be forgotten.”
Family and friends walked Sunday in honor of these victims: Michael T. Sot, Matt Uhl, Chad Horne, Kevin Ade, Ryan Schleyer, Alfonso Lee Dickerson, Ron Moretti Jr., John Cruz, Nikk Marvel, Ricci Branca, Nicole Romanelli, Daniel “Sonny” DuRoss, Frederick Shelton, Jennifer Stoop, Mariella Mulholland and Phillip Gatto.
For more information, visit HEROcampaign.org
