Senior Living APRIL Alexandria PRIL 2200116 Gazette Packet Inside 25 Cents Alexandria Gazette Packet Lwowwc.C alo nMnec edtiiao nN Coenwnspa ecpetrios.c Serving Alexandria for over 200 years • A Connection Newspaper April 7, 2016 no mLLC oAle nlxaindr e iaat Gaz wewtte P w.caocket nn e ❖c Se tinoionr L neiwving spaSpring ers .2c016 om ❖ 1 SeniorSenior Living Living Photo by Vernon Miles / Gazette Packet Miles by Vernon Photo Robbery Ends In Murder Local grandfather remembered as pillar of community. By Vernon Miles bors to be involved. Gazette Packet “If there was a community meet- ing, he was there,” said his daugh- elaku Abraha ter, Wintana Gebremariam. loved walking. It Gebremariam said that any time The Sierra Club and other local environmental groups gather for a clean M was his favorite someone from his home in Ethio- energy rally. way to explore pia would visit Alexandria, the first Alexandria, and family and neigh- place he would take them was the bors in particular remember his river and the waterfront. From frequent walks near his home on there, he’d take them to GAP to Uniting for Clean Energy South Alfred Street. On March 28, see if they needed new shoes or at around new Rally spotlights climate change’s effects on people. 9:33 p.m., he clothes. But By Vernon Miles merly unable to survive. But in addition to health was found the next Gazette Packet effects, Ahdoot says climate change has periph- conscious day, he eral social impacts, referencing a case where a but badly in- would en- rally to support clean power, held in Mar- young man lost his home in Hurricane Katrina and jured just a courage ket Square on April 2, was interrupted by his displacement made it difficult for him to ad- block from them to be A his home. A indepen- a heckler denouncing climate change as a just to a new home or study in school. Ahdoot fraud. For attendees of the rally, it was an unex- warned that climate change-related flooding could robbery and dent and pected disturbance, but the legislators hosting the add to the number of displaced youth and fami- assault left explore the event say it’s par for the course. lies throughout the country. Abraha with city on their Photo by Vernon Miles by Vernon Photo “That’s what we’re dealing with in Richmond,” Stephen D’Alessio came to the rally from Ar- serious head own. On said Del. Alfonso Lopez who, along with state Sen. lington, and says he was motivated to get involved injuries. He one of their Adam Ebbin and freshman Del. Mark Levine, had after hearing about lead poisoning in Flint, Mich. was hospital- first days in just returned to Alexandria from a contentious D’Alessio believes that climate change dispropor- ized, but his the United legislative term. “It’s a mindset that says what sci- tionately affects disadvantaged groups, and agreed condition States, entists and academics say is wrong, and that any with Ahdoot that it is as much a social issue as it continued to Gebremariam kind of change is wrong if big business says it’s is an energy policy one. Molly Pugh, an Alexan- deteriorate said Abraha wrong.” dria resident and high school teacher, said she and four told his Dr. Samantha Ahdoot, an Old Town resident and came out and attended the rally because she be- days later he Photographs of Melaku Abraha children to pediatrician, said she’s already beginning to see lieves that the more people are involved, the more died. at a memorial. go out and the impacts of a changing climate on her patients. likely they are to spread a pro-green energy mes- The first explore, Ahdoot pointed to longer and more intense al- sage to their friends and peers. homicide of and if they lergy seasons brought on by more extreme sea- “It can be overwhelming [to be involved] as an 2016 robbed Alexandria of a man got lost, to read the maps and talk sonal shifts and the spread of lyme disease to re- individual,” said Pugh, “but we’re strong as a who worked tirelessly to spread to people. Abraha told his children gions where the disease-bearing ticks were for- group.” his love of education and civic en- that people in this area were gagement to those around him, ac- friendly and would help them if cording to family, friends, and they asked. neighbors. As one of the citizens Gebremariam remembered her TC track stars raising living in the affordable housing father as an active reader and one Going for the Gold being moved to make way for the who enjoyed passing on books to funds to reach Rio. expanding Alfred Street Baptist others. He would collect books and By Jeanne Theismann Church, he attended the discus- Gazette Packet sions and encouraged his neigh- See Robbery Ends, Page 20 Photo contributed Photo oah and Josephus Lyles, along with their 22314 VA Alexandria, 4x100 meter relay team from T.C. Williams St., King 1604 To: ted N Reques Service Address High School, are headed to the Arcadia material. Invitational in California this weekend as they con- Time-sensitive tinue their quest to reach the 2016 Summer Olym- Postmaster: pic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Attention Keisha Caine-Lyles, “Momager” to the nationally #482 Permit Noah and Josephus Lyles are hoping to VA Alexandria, recognized track stars, is hoping to raise funds to PAID compete in the 2016 Olympic Games in Postage U.S. See Going for the Gold, Page 20 Rio de Janeiro this summer. STD PRSRT www.ConnectionNewspapers.com Alexandria Gazette Packet ❖ April 7-13, 2016 ❖ 1 2 ❖ Alexandria Gazette Packet ❖ April 7-13, 2016 www.ConnectionNewspapers.com Alexandria Gazette Editor Steven Mauren News 703-778-9415 or [email protected] The Undocumented American Story home: the way Jerry Pinto says that had no choice but to drink from it. Soon, Dinner with Beyer every time he says goodbye to his chil- helicopters came, and the remaining dren as they head out for school, he group scattered, but Jerry Pinto stayed highlights difficulties might be grabbed by the police that day by the lake. He says he believed he was and not see them again. going to die there, but finally calmed facing undocumented All of them, except Arlington-born down and decided to keep walking. Christian Pinto, are undocumented. Sick, dehydrated, and with his feet cov- immigrants in While Ambar Pinto and soon the ered in blisters, he finally arrived at a younger Jerry Pinto are protected, a town. He went door to door asking for Northern Virginia. pending Supreme Court ruling leaves water; the first man who answered their parents in jeopardy. threatened to shoot him, the second By Vernon Miles On April 4, the Pinto family had din- turned off their lights and didn’t answer. Gazette Packet ner with U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, hosted At the third, a trailer owned by a Native by the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant American man, he was taken in and given he Pintos are an all-Ameri- Rights at a home in South Arlington. water, food, and some medicine. When can family. Jerry Pinto, a The Pinto family lived in Arlington un- he took a shower, Jerry Pinto said he T50-year-old man with a til 2009, when they lost their home in looked in the mirror and cried when he thick moustache, works in a fire and moved to Fairfax. For nearly saw how emaciated he’d become. Once construction. He says he doesn’t speak two hours, Beyer and the Pinto family he obtains legal status, Jerry Pinto says English and he lets his daughter do discussed everything from the possibil- he wants to go back to where he crossed most of the translating. His wife of 23 ity of colonization on other worlds to over to try and find the man who saved years, Elvira Pinto, cleans homes to the immediate concerns about Deferred him and thank him. supplement her husband’s income, but Action for Parents of Americans and Jerry Pinto made his way to Virginia she studied tourism and hospitality Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) and found work to make sure that his and still dreams of being a flight at- and Deferred Action for Childhood Ar- Photos by Vernon Miles/Gazette Packet family could afford a different means of tendant. Their daughter Ambar Pinto rivals (DACA). The Pinto family is one U.S. Rep. Don Beyer meets with the Pinto crossing. Soon afterwards, the rest of his is preparing to graduate from North- of 91,000 immigrants who would be eli- family in the home of Leni Gonzalez, family arrived in Mexico, where Elvira ern Virginia Community College and gible for deportation deferral, work chair of the Steering Committee for the Pinto is from, and were eventually able hopes to attend George Mason Uni- permits, and state driver’s licenses un- Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights. to obtain a visa. The Pinto family was versity to eventually become an im- der immigration programs President “Their plea represents 91,000 in Virginia reunited in Virginia in 2005 and have migration attorney. Their sons Jerry Obama announced in 2015. However, who will benefit from DAPA,” said lived here ever since. (the family calls him Jerry Rodrigo) the State of Texas challenged the ex- Gonzalez. “There are a lot of families Jerry Pinto’s story stunned the room, and Christian attend Fairfax schools ecutive action, and the fate of the Pinto like this around here, and people don’t and for a long moment afterwards no one and have strong interests in science family hinges on the results of an April realize the difficulty of living in a state spoke.