UVM Students King St Fire Emergency Fund

Early January 9, 2021 a fire on King St. claimed the lives of two people and has now left many others stranded without homes or belongings. Two of these people are Mariah Rivera and Mary Chasen, UVM seniors and members of the Burlington community. Mariah and Mary have reached out to UVM for emergency support and services but have received nothing more than empty apologies and pointing to resources elsewhere. Mariah and Mary were offered on campus housing, but at FULL PRICE and with a FORCED full price meal plan! Now not only are Mariah and Mary forced out of their home, UVM is refusing to actually help support two of their own students in any way they can. Not to mention, Mariah and Mary are active, exemplary members of the UVM community having worked for UVM in so many capacities that they would be too long to list. But the fact that they both have served as faces (and importantly, Mariah, a BIPOC face in an immensely white school) means nothing to UVM administration. With no on campus housing option being made available to them Mariah and Mary now have no where to be for their spring semester.

So while Mariah and Mary are not allowed to return to their apartment even to see the state of their belongings and UVM refuses to help we are unfortunately forced to look towards our communities for support during this already hard time. The spring semester will be beginning February 1st and in order to help Mariah and Mary in the now and to make sure they can complete their spring semesters we are asking for you to donate to help buy them the necessary belongings lostin the fire and two months of future rent. While the sentimental value of items lost cannot be replaced, Mariah and Mary may now have to replace nearly all of their belongings. To ease the burden of this necessary financial investment for them and to lessen the stress of finding somewhere new to live we are asking for around $4000, what they would be paying for the next two months at their previous apartment. The additional $2000 will go towards replacing necessary food, furniture, clothing, etc. As always the smallest bit can always help. Donate here through the GoFundMe or directly to Mariah and Mary at their Venmo’s in the update below.