Snowy Owl development residents Samantha and Albert Palmieri have decorated their property for Halloween to benefit a charity that hits close to home.
The Mantua family is hoping to raise $1,000 for this year’s Skeletons for St. Jude nationwide fundraiser, which raises money for childhood cancer research. The Palmieris have a family friend that lost their teen daughter, Taylor Buonadonna, to bone cancer in 2010.
“After many rounds of chemo radiation and limb salvage surgery,” said Taylor’s mother, Maria, “she went into remission for almost two years, when it came back in the other leg. Again, she went through radiation and chemo but succumbed to the illness at the age of 17.
“(Maria) was one of the easiest babies any mother can ask for,” Samantha added. “She was so kind and thoughtful and generous. She loved her sisters. They would play with Barbies and Pokémon cards and Bratz dolls and play school and house, and she loved Wildwood every summer when we were on vacation. And she would love to go on the beach.”
The Palmieris are welcoming people to their Ravenswood Way front yard to see decorations that include a UFO with a body attached, crime scene tape and numerous skeletons. It is the family’s first year of a display to benefit St. Jude.
“The Palmieris are doing something extraordinarily special this year,” noted Mayor Robert Zimmerman, who added that their holiday display benefits the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, where children are treated for cancer and other life-threatening illnesses at no cost to families. It was founded in 1962 by comedian Danny Thomas, who believed that “no child should die in the dawn of life.”
“The family has turned their Halloween obsession into helping children who are fighting for their lives,” Zimmerman added of the Palmieris.
To donate to the family’s cause, visit the St. Jude website, click on the “find a fundraiser” tab, type in Samantha’s name and hit search. The result will appear as Ravenswood Family Halloween Fundraiser.
“Her memories are kept alive every year on the day that she passed, which is Nov. 28, 2010, and on the day of her birth, June 19, 1993,” Samantha said. “Every year, all of her friends and family and extended family that we have – including our grandchildren – come to our home. And we celebrate her life.”
