Dear friends and community, I am starting a campaign to help our dear neighbor, teacher, and friend, Shihhan, get her emergency home renovation completed before winter for her and her boys.

Shihhan is an amazing and ambitious teacher at our school, as well as a fellow parent of a 5th and 8th grader. She is full of energy and intention with her students. She is also a full-time single parent in a complete fixer-upper house that needs extensive work to be made livable! So much so, that the city of Viroqua has insisted it be brought up to code regardless of whether the savings for such a large project were ready or not.

This has caused financial stress. Many avenues and community resources have been explored to fund and reduce costs for this project. Some people have donated professional know-how, and many have donated time and labor, or even a meal to help offset the cost and chaos of trying to live in a construction site. You can imagine the stress of managing family life in the debris of a work zone with missing walls and an upper story not quite sealed off to the elements yet.

Our family has only been here one year, and the energy, organization, communication, and love she brings into her classroom is more than we’ve ever experienced compared to many other classrooms my children have been in. From hand-sewn valentines to baking bread for her students in the wee hours of the morning before school, Shihhan is a giver. Please join me in giving back to her.