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A band of mothers: Their quest to find beds for students during March for Our Lives

It started with a tweet

By
March 22, 2018 at 3:14 p.m. EDT

Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Marissa J. Lang.

“As a DC resident and mother of a high schooler, I’ll help to find free lodging for kids and their families coming to this March,” Elizabeth Andrews, a lawyer, tweeted to her 30 followers.

Before she knew it, her tweet had been shared more than 1,400 times.

Without even realizing it, Andrews had found a need that was growing by the day: Students planning to descend on D.C. this weekend to participate in the March for Our Lives needed a place to stay.

The problem

If they are under 18, booking a hotel suite or a room on Airbnb is out of the question. For those who are of age, those options can be prohibitively costly. Couch surfing or staying with friends would work if they know someone in the area, but many do not.

The solution

Andrews got to work trying to find housing for what could be thousands of students.

Less than two weeks later, she and a group of seven other mothers had started a full-fledged organization. They had a website, infrastructure, roles.

The group, dubbed March for Our Lives Lodging, is one of several efforts in the D.C. area with a singular goal: to provide out-of-town students with a free place to sleep and a community to help them feel welcome.

Emma González is young, Cuban and bisexual. She’s bringing all of her identities to the gunfight.

“When we looked at reasons why students might not be coming to the [march], we noticed there were really two big ones: transportation and lodging,” said Gabrielle Zwi, 17, one of the founders of the Teens Action group and a senior at Walter Johnson High. “We don’t have much we can do about transportation, but we live here, and we have homes here, so, we thought, we can offer those.”

Lodging

Andrews and her team signed up more than 330 families outside the D.C. area to stay with local hosts. They have more than 2,500 beds still available.

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- George Washington University students will host other college students in their dorm rooms.

- Half a dozen students from Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, Md., signed up 250 of their peers across the country to stay in local homes through a group called DC Area Teens Action.

- Faith organizations have paired members of synagogues and churches from outside the D.C. region with local families.

Among those who have been placed in various homes in and around the District are several students and alumni from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where a gunman fatally shot 17 people on Feb. 14.

Safety

Every person who wants to host or be hosted is subject to a vetting process that involves ­social-media background checks and a phone call to make sure everyone has similar expectations. For those under 18 traveling alone, parental consent is required.

A warm welcome

Jon Zeitler and his wife Cynthia Baker will host two teenagers and a parent visiting from out of town.

They are planning a potluck dinner Friday with other host families in their Maryland neighborhood to bring students together and talk about why attending the march, a demonstration demanding safer schools and stricter gun laws, feels so important.

Some host families are planning block parties, sign-making events and community meals. One stretch of homes in D.C. that is planning to host 42 students from Florida State University in eight houses will host a Seminoles tailgate.

Students from Walter Johnson High will throw a meet-and-greet, followed by dinner for visiting students and their families with food donated by local restaurants. The next day, they will all head to the march, which begins at noon Saturday along Pennsylvania Avenue NW between Third and 12th Streets.

Coming together

For Andrews, this process has been a good reminder. “It restores your faith in mankind a little, knowing that these people really care, and you start to think, ‘Wow, if we all banded together, just think of what we could do.”