House Takes Up Collection for Worker

Eliot House rallied around one of its dining hall workers yesterday after her apartment was destroyed in a fire almost two weeks ago.

Harvard University Dining Services employee Marina Gerolimatos, who has worked in Eliot for 13 years, said she did not have insurance to cover the damages to the contents of her Malden apartment.

“Half the apartment is burned, and the other half is black,” she said.

Now—unbeknownst to Gerolimatos—the House is raising money to help her recoup her losses.

Co-Master Lino Pertile sent an e-mail to Eliot student leaders Tuesday informing them of Gerolimatos’ loss. The House Committee decided to donate $400 the same day, and yesterday started a fund for Gerolimatos to which other students can contribute, according to Committee Co-Chair Geoff S. Harcourt ’04.

“She’s a very important member of our House,” Harcourt said. “We’re hoping that our House members will be as generous as they have been in the past.”

Harcourt, who said the House Committee has not set a fundraising goal, added that six students already donated a total of about $100 yesterday.

Gerolimatos said she is fatigued from the ordeal and will be taking a sick day today.

Besides her regular job in Eliot, Gerolimatos is also a painter, and exhibited her work for a month last spring in the Eliot House small dining room.

Many of her paintings were lost in the fire, according to Gerolimatos, although some may be restored through an expensive cleaning process.

She said she was planning to display more of her paintings in Eliot later this year, but will now have to postpone the new exhibit.

“When they rebuild the apartment I am going to start again,” she said, holding back tears. “I need to do something that will make me happy.”

The fire, which started at 6:45 p.m., began in the kitchen, according to Gerolimatos.

“I don’t remember if I did anything wrong, but everything [in the kitchen] is burned, the cabinets, my table, my chairs, my carpets,” she said.

Gerolimatos and her pet dog, the only occupants of the apartment, were both at her sister’s house at the time.

“When my little baby dog saw the burning, he looked around like a human being and then looked in my eyes and then again at the burning,” she said. “He understands everything that happened.”

Pertile said that Gerolimatos’ “kindness and gentleness” set her apart.

“She calls all the students ‘baby,’ she knows them by name and knows what’s going on [in the House],” he said.

Harcourt said that the House Committee will also contact alumni who were close to Gerolimatos for donations.

“These alums were at her house for dinner at the end of the year and again for the summer,” he said.

Gerolimatos said she will live with her sister until her apartment is reconstructed.

“I cry for three minutes and then I am alright,” she said. “God makes me strong because if there is worse, there is worst.”