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Monday, April 27, 2020 I Vol. 116 Iss. 29 INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904 WWW.GWHATCHET.COM What’s inside Opinions Culture Sports The editorial board Learn about how D.C. Men’s basketball head discusses how GW restaurants have changed coach finds inspiration in can reassure students their menus during GW teams over the past about the fall semester. quarantine. three decades. Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Students, alumni in D.C. cope with Students donate portion of quarantine during pandemic merchandise sales to GW Hospital during pandemic LIA DEGROOT missing being at school,” ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR she said. Walley said a Univer- Students are selling sity of Michigan Universi- hoodies and T-shirts to tyTee chapter sold apparel raise money for the GW and earned about $2,000 Hospital as it fights the and donated 10 percent of coronavirus outbreak. the company’s profits to a Sophomore Samantha local food bank. New York Walley, who serves as a University’s UTees chap- GW campus manager for ter donated proceeds from UniversityTees, a national a sorority’s merchan- group that produces ap- dise sales to health care parel for philanthropic ef- workers, police officers, forts on college campuses, firefighters, janitors and said the group led a two other essential workers to three week-long fund- during the pandemic. raiser at GW to help fund “One of the things I no- supplies like masks and ticed the most about being gloves for GW Hospital. involved with these sorts She said fundraiser orga- of groups, like philanthro- nizers donated 10 percent pies and social organiza- of its proceeds to the hos- tions, is that people will pital because it’s a cause love to give if they can “personal” to the GW get something for them- community. selves,” she said. “Being “It was becoming able to have a T-shirt or apparent that colleges something to hold on to to weren’t able to have any remember these occasions on-campus events,” she was a no-brainer for me.” said. “Immediately, the Nando’s PERi-PERi, a reaction from a lot of us restaurant chain with lo- with UTees to all the cam- cations throughout D.C., pus managers was, ‘Well, has donated more than what can we do to make 6,000 meals to District hos- philanthropy still hap- pital workers, including pen?’” those at GW Hospital and Students could pur- unemployed restaurant chase sweatshirts or T- workers. Twenty Tables, shirts emblazoned with an app-based food truck the words “The Social company that partners Distancing Club” or with with GW Dining, also do- photos of Foggy Bottom nated hundreds of meals locations, like Tonic and to GW Hospital workers Crepeaway, for $20 to $38 earlier this month. starting earlier this month Walley said she start- until last Friday. Wal- ed another T-shirt and ley said UniversityTees, hoodie fundraiser for the which typically produces hospital last week with apparel for student or- the words “I miss Foggy ganizations, originally Bottom” and “I miss D.C.” started donating funds written on the apparel. to each specific organi- She said students re- zation’s cause of choice sponded positively to the when schools began can- fundraiser’s Facebook celing on-campus events post with likes and com- OLIVIA COLUMBUS | DESIGN EDITOR and decided to expand to ments. She said one cou- VENKAT SAI AKASH PAMARTHY campus-wide fundraisers ple decided to purchase about three weeks ago. identical T-shirts from the STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER She said the company fundraiser because the hoped the T-shirt sales designs were “trendy.” As D.C.’s shelter-in-place order dents and alumni living at Columbia classes after spring break, and all could bring students posi- “For me, this is an continues into another month, stu- Plaza apartments in Foggy Bottom students were required to leave their tivity through committing important fundraiser be- dents and alumni are trying to find about how they are spending their residence halls and move off campus to a good cause after their cause I thought it was an ways to cope with the isolating ef- time indoors and how they are re- unless they received an exemption. semesters were cut short. opportunity for people fects of quarantine. As of April 25, acting to the effects of the pandemic. “In this instance, it who are so far away from 2020, more than 18,000 D.C. residents Some said they have picked up new was something that was each other to come togeth- GWHATCHET.COM so near and dear to all er and to have one goal in have been tested, and about 3,800 of hobbies like cooking or reading, for comments from students them tested positive for the corona- while others are trying to hunker of our hearts, and I saw mind, which is to help as and alumni living in D.C. how much people were much as possible,” Walley virus. down on work and job applications. about their daily routines The Hatchet spoke with nine stu- Officials canceled on-campus H missing their friends and said. Tonic owner raises funds to support furloughed employees after closure ILENA PENG almost 10 grants and government CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR program funds, like the Paycheck Protection Program and the James The owner of Tonic is raising Beard Foundation relief fund, funds to support his furloughed which support small businesses, employees after the Foggy Bottom to compensate for the restaurant’s restaurant shut down during the loss of income. He has not yet re- COVID-19 pandemic. ceived any grants but has kept Jeremy Pollok, the restaurant’s busy completing applications and owner, had tried offering takeout communicating with Tonic’s ven- and delivery for a week after CO- dors during the store’s closure, he VID-19 hit D.C., but Tonic experi- said. enced a drop in visitors similar to “We’ve been applying for every other Foggy Bottom restaurants, government program and grant which led the business to close. Pol- and whatever else we can do to try lok said he launched a GoFundMe to get some funds to exist,” he said. page earlier this month as his more “And you know, frankly, we just than 80 employees wait for unem- have not had any luck with that so ployment benefits, raising nearly far.” $15,000 as of Sunday for his staff. Pollok said he goes into Tonic’s “It’s very difficult for all of us location at 21st and G streets sev- to not be able to work together and eral days a week, which helps him be together,” Pollok said. “I always keep “some semblance of normal- tell them that they’re the family I cy.” He spends time in the restau- chose, and it’s just heartbreaking rant completing tasks like painting how much it’s affecting people.” the floors, cleaning the carpets and Pollok said all funds raised will making a calendar with his em- go to his employees and will be dis- ployees’ birthdays, he said. tributed through checks based on “Things like that, small proj- who needs support the most, like ects, things that have been on the those with families and those who bottom of my to-do list for several rely on Tonic as their only source of years are now getting done,” he income. said. ERIC LEE | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER He said many of Tonic’s regular Isabel Janetos, who has worked A fund for Tonic employees has received almost 200 donations and nearly $15,000 for the on-campus restaurant’s 80 employees. customers have donated to the fun- at Tonic for six years, said she has draiser, which has garnered almost lost the majority of her income be- because there is literally no finan- Janetos said. “He signs off on his White, who has worked at 200 donations, according to the cause of the restaurant’s closure. cial wiggle room, and it will be emails with ‘We will get through Tonic since 2009, said he has GoFundMe page. Pollok is promot- She said her other job, a part-time tight for a while,” Janetos said in an this’ and ‘Tonic will be back better stayed in touch with Pollok and ing the fundraiser through social position that has since become a email. than ever.’ I am just so grateful to other employees since the stay-at- media platforms like Instagram full-time job amid the stay-at-home She said Tonic’s closure on have a boss and a friend like Jer- home order was first issued but and Facebook, as well as word of orders, is keeping her financially March 16 left her feeling “heart- emy.” was unaware that Pollok planned mouth, he said. “afloat.” broken immediately” for Pollok, Floyd White, a part-time Tonic to launch the GoFundMe before “So many regulars have do- Local restaurants made the who she said serves as a “paternal employee, said he is in a “much seeing the fund online. He said nated to the fundraiser and have switch to selling meals through figure” to many Tonic employees. better situation” than other full- Pollok’s fundraiser is the first Go- sent me little notes of ‘thank you’ pickup and delivery after D.C. Janetos, who first saw Pollok’s Go- time Tonic employees because he FundMe he has ever donated to. and how much they miss Tonic, Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered the FundMe on her Facebook feed, works multiple jobs. But he said be- “I’m still very impressed with and it’s really raised my spirits,” closure of all non-essential busi- said the fundraiser was “exactly ing separated from his usual Tonic the folks that have gone through he said.

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