{"id":11162,"date":"2018-03-05T20:12:46","date_gmt":"2018-03-05T20:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madd.org\/?p=11162"},"modified":"2022-06-24T12:54:32","modified_gmt":"2022-06-24T12:54:32","slug":"why-we-walk-josie-distefano-palomino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madd.org\/why-we-walk-josie-distefano-palomino\/","title":{"rendered":"Why We Walk: Linda Unfried"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/madd.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Josie-DiStefano-Palomino-WWW.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"168\" height=\"234\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-123767 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 168px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 168\/234;\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/madd.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Josie-DiStefano-Palomino-WWW.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"168\" height=\"234\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-123767\" \/><\/noscript>In the spring of 1983, my sister Josie, and I both watched the original MADD movie, which told the story of Candy Lightner.<\/p>\n<p>I remember saying, \u201cIf we ever volunteer for an organization, let&#8217;s make it MADD and do it together.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Six months later, on October 29, 1983, my sister Josie DiStefano Palomino was killed by an underage drunk driver. He was 17 years old and over twice the legal limit. He shouldn\u2019t have been driving at all, as he was driving on a suspended license.<\/p>\n<p>My family was completely shattered. My mom and dad struggled constantly with the grief, but my heart already knew what to do.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Start of a New Chapter <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>After Josie\u2019s death, I reached out to the only MADD chapter in Florida, which was located in Orlando, and they came to our side. It was then that I realized that we needed a local MADD chapter to assist families going through the same devastation we were facing.<\/p>\n<p>I co-founded the Hillsborough County chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in March of 1984 and I have been volunteering here ever since. It\u2019s been a long, uphill battle for the past 34 years but we are not giving up. We will continue to walk, educate, and assist families who need our services.<\/p>\n<h2><strong><em>Walk Like MADD Tampa<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Josie stood at 4\u201910\u201d but had the heart of a giant!\u00a0 She would do anything for anyone. My family, friends and I Walk for my Josie every year.<\/p>\n<p>I helped organize the first Walk here in Tampa and was one of the honorary chairs. I\u2019ve taken part in every Walk since. Our goal was to come together and educate the community about the dangers of drinking and driving. Over the years, I know that we have made a big impact.<span style=\"text-decoration: line-through\">\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Every 50 minutes, someone is killed in a drunk driving crash. Hillsborough County still maintains the highest number of DUI fatalities and injuries in the state of Florida. We walk to end drunk driving with the hope of seeing a future of No More Victims.<\/p>\n<p>The 2018 <em>Walk Like MADD<\/em> Tampa presented by Burnetti, P.A. will be held on March 23, 2018.\u00a0 You can go to <a class=\"text-red\" href=\"http:\/\/walklikemadd.org\/tampa\">walklikemadd.org\/tampa<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the spring of 1983, my sister Josie, and I both watched the original MADD movie, which told the story of Candy Lightner. I remember saying, \u201cIf we ever volunteer&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/madd.org\/why-we-walk-josie-distefano-palomino\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Why We Walk: Linda Unfried<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-walk-like-madd","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why We Walk: Linda Unfried - MADD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In 1983, Josie DiStefano Palamino was killed by a drunk driver. Today, her sister Linda Unfried, founder of MADD Tampa, walks for her sister.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/madd.org\/why-we-walk-josie-distefano-palomino\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why We Walk: Linda Unfried - MADD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In 1983, Josie DiStefano Palamino was killed by a drunk driver. 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