Friends of bombing victim honor her in memorial fund
Ten years ago Saturday Erin Daly and Elliott Nerland were on Boylston Street to meet a friend at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon.
Then two bombs detonated nearby, unleashing a scene of screams and horror. The couple retreated from the deadly scene before they had a chance to meet their friend — 29-year-old Krystle Campbell.
Later that day, the couple learned that Campbell, a vivacious spirit and maid of honor at their wedding, had been killed as she watched runners cross the finish line. Every Boston Marathon since that deadly day, the couple and another friend, Bonnie Fleischer, have organized a team to run the race and raise money to support the Krystle Campbell Memorial Fund.
“She ran everything. She took care of everyone. She was the glue that held people together,” Daly, 40, said Saturday in an interview in Copley Square, where the 10th anniversary of the deadly bombing was marked during events.
“She was just full of life, full of energy. Like, nonstop, on-thego, all the time, willing to help everybody,” Daly said.
This year, Poland Spring donated $25,000 to be shared by the fund honoring Campbell, the Martin Richard Foundation, which celebrates the memory of the 8-year-old Dorchester boy killed in the attack, and the Lingzi Foundation, a nonprofit organization established by the family of Lingzi Lu, who also died in the bombing.
On Monday, 10 people will run in the Marathon to raise money for the fund named after Campbell, who cherished going to watch the annual spring rite with friends.
Daly and Fleischer, 36, who worked with Campbell at Summer Shack, said they strive to oversee the Marathon team honoring their friend with the same kind of enthusiasm and energy their friend had. If Campbell had survived, she would have turned 40 next month, her friends said.
“We always like to say if Krystle was here and doing this organization, she would do it a thousand times better than us,” said Fleischer. “We’re trying to do it justice.”
To emphasize that point, Daly recalled the day she and Nerland married. It was Labor Day weekend in 2010 and Hurricane Earl was bearing down. Daly and Nerland were planning to celebrate their wedding with a boat cruise and clambake on Spectacle Island.
Campbell, dressed in a royal blue bridesmaid dress, crisscrossed the island in a truck to see through wedding preparations, including setting up chairs and convincing a vendor not to remove a tent for the reception, Daly said.
“Krystle made sure it happened,” she said. “She kept the tent up, kept everything going. That was the person she was.”
Daly and Nerland, both educators for Boston Public Schools, are raising two children in Hyde Park. Their eldest is 5-year-old Avery, whose middle name is Krystle.
Campbell grew up in Medford, where her fund supports the Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility, a program of Medford Public Schools, Nerland said.
The center helps students develop and carry out community improvement projects. One effort resulted in a three-dimensional crosswalk being painted outside an elementary school in 2019 to try to reduce speeding, Nerland said.
For another project, students taught patrons of Medford’s senior center how to use electronics. The senior center sits next to a peace garden named for Campbell.
At the Salem Street Burying Ground in Medford, a memorial honoring enslaved people who were buried in unmarked graves there is another project by the Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility, Daly said.
“This is a program that is supporting students to effectively make the world a better place with their own ideas,” said Nerland, 40.
On Monday, Nerland, Daly, and Fleischer said they plan to gather in Newton at mile 16 to cheer on the runners raising money for Campbell’s fund and then head to the finish line. The group is hosting an after-party at Summer Shack.
Nerland has previously run the Boston Marathon. On his right bicep, Nerland has a tattoo of a Brooks Running shoe with the letters, KC, on the tongue in honor of Campbell.
Daly said her feelings about visiting the finish line have evolved over time.
On one hand, it’s the spot where Campbell’s life ended, she said. But it’s also a place, she said, where she spent many hours with Campbell.
“We had so many great memories,” she said. “Over time, that became what we remember about her rather than this was her last moments.”
Fleischer said she can now mark the Marathon as a celebration of Campbell’s life.
“It’s about celebrating this day that she always loved. We all loved,” she said. “Of course there’s always mourning, but for us this day is more about celebration.”