ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – September serves as a time to remember those we’ve lost to suicide, and a time to hopefully prevent more families from going through the same pain.

Tonight’s Pay It 4ward helps a mom who dedicates time beyond her full-time job to preserving her daughter’s memory. 

Among the clipboards, posters, and binders are signs of Tonya Raye Romero.

Meredith Olivas lost her daughter, Tonya, to suicide in 2010. But she keeps her in her heart, on her wrist, and all over her Placitas Elementary fifth grade classroom.

“She’s an amazing person, amazing,” said Anita, a Pay It 4ward nominator.  

Anita and Tammie Griego also work at the school, and noticed Olivas’ hard work to bring awareness to teenage suicide. 

“The kids need it, because there’s so many out there that are going through hard times, and their thoughts are suicide, getting away from it all,” said Anita.

After her daughter’s death, Olivas founded the Tonya Raye Romero Memorial Fund that gives scholarships to high school seniors.

She hosts an annual memorial golf tournament to help keep the fund going, and sells resin jewelry and art to fundraise. She even uses some of the funds to make care bags for troubled kids.

She recently donated 100 of them to schools in Bernalillo.

“She has a full-time job as a fifth grade teacher here. But on top of that, she works year round for her cause,” Tammie.

Tammie shares a special connection with Olivas. 

“We’re sisters, not by blood, but as mothers who have lost children to suicide. I too in 2003 I lost my son to suicide,” said Tammie. “She’s just always been there for me, and she’s held me through a lot.”

So it was time to Pay It 4ward.

Watch the video above for more.