[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 214 (Thursday, December 17, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H7237-H7238]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        RECOGNIZING LOCAL HEROES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Pennsylvania (Ms. Scanlon) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, over the last 10 months, the COVID-19 
pandemic has had a devastating impact on our communities: from our 
frontline heroes working around the clock to families who have gone 
hungry, to the millions who have lost their jobs, and, heartbreakingly, 
the over 300,000 who have lost their lives.
  While many of us believe that the Federal Government can and still 
should do much more to alleviate the impact of the pandemic, we all can 
be inspired by the compassion, innovation, and resilience of the people 
in our communities who have stepped up to serve and to try to fill the 
needs laid bare by this crisis. They are our local heroes.
  A few weeks ago, my office launched a local heroes initiative to 
showcase the countless people in Pennsylvania's Fifth Congressional 
District who have gone above and beyond to help those in need 
throughout this crisis. In just the first few days, we received over 
100 submissions, and it has grown since then.
  From nurses on our front lines to children organizing food drives, we 
were overwhelmed by the stories of resilience, ingenuity, and absolute 
determination by members of our community whose stories we don't hear 
enough. So, today, I want to share a few of their stories.
  I am talking about people like Nicole, an emergency manager, who is 
now serving our community by running two emergency rooms due to the 
overwhelming number of COVID-19 cases. Aunt Nee Nee, as she is known to 
her beloved nieces and nephews, has only been able to see her family 
for limited amounts of time, if at all, since the pandemic started.
  People like Jillian, a mom of three, who regularly works 15-hour 
shifts in the ER, then comes home, disposes of her scrubs in a bin so 
she can hug her kids and help them do their schoolwork. She is a real-
life superhero.
  Young people like Emily, just 14 years old, who, when she realized 
that some children in our community would be without holiday gifts this 
year, organized a toy drive, contributing her babysitting money and 
recruiting her younger brother and sisters to help make cards and wrap 
the gifts.
  People like Michelle, a nonprofit leader, who has ensured that our 
LGBTQ communities are not left behind during this crisis; working to 
secure housing, food, and medications for immunocompromised community 
members.

  Teachers like Jimmy, from Upper Darby, who knows how hard this 
transition has been for both students and teachers. So he has gone 
above and beyond to share acts of kindness, like dropping off doughnuts 
for his fellow teachers or helping students get help to obtain the 
technology they need for virtual learning.
  People like Ala Stanford and the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, 
who organized free COVID testing for our most at-risk communities when 
it became apparent that they could not otherwise obtain testing.
  County employees, like Ed and Gayle, who have reinvented and 
organized dozens of drive-thru food drives to help feed our neighbors 
and keep the donors safe.
  These local heroes should inspire all of us, no matter what our 
party, to fight for more relief that the American people deserve.
  Every day we delay getting relief to them means more businesses go 
under, people get sicker, more Americans die, and families are 
stretched even thinner financially. We have got to get this done. The 
American people cannot wait.

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