WASHINGTON — Mariel Vallano guides her students as they pursue the American Dream, experience their first year in the United States, and, now, endure the hardships of a pandemic knocking families off a precarious tightrope.
Vallano teaches English as a second language in Northwest D.C. She's acutely aware some of her students are now going hungry as their parents’ service jobs are slashed.
“They tell us they’re trying to finish their school work on empty stomachs,” Vallano said Monday. “They tell us that their parents have lost their jobs. Most of their parents work more than one job, and so, they've lost all of their jobs.”
Over the weekend, Vallano, 32, started a GoFundMe page to raise $2,000 for grocery gift cards and rent assistance. As of Monday night, she is less than $300 away from meeting her goal.
“People are going out of their way to be very generous to a community they might not even know,” Vallano said. “These things are always heartbreaking, but I think what we as teachers do is go into a response mode.”
The effort spread after a member of the neighborhood social media site Nextdoor posted about the fundraising. Within the first day, an anonymous donor injected a substantial dose of momentum by contributing $500.
Vallano has worked with immigrant children for the past five years, and now instructs seventh and eighth grade students in Ward 4.
She is originally from the D.C. area, and calls it her life’s joy to welcome immigrants to their new home.
“I always tell them that I learn so much more from them than they learn from me,” she said. “It is the greatest honor of my life, really, to be able to work with them.”