Dr. Anthony Fauci and his wife often take walks at night through their Northwest Washington neighborhood that they’ve lived in since 1977.
Recently, the couple approached their neighbors, Ida Bergstrom and her two sons, who had a special sign planted in their yard:
As Fauci battles the pandemic and politics, his grateful neighbors celebrate him as a hero https://t.co/kmtoLBuQJu
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 7, 2020
Several neighbors followed suit, and now more than 200 signs have been sold with the proceeds going to Life Pieces to Masterpieces, a D.C. nonprofit.
Bergstrom, a physician who spent a month of her residency working for Fauci, told The Washington Post: “In the academic circles of medicine, his name is on the covers of books, and he’s very prestigious,” Bergstrom said. “But he’s a very real person, and for anyone to sustain what he’s going through must be taxing…”
Here’s Fauci’s response to the neighborhood initiative:
“I have been, for so long, a quiet, inconspicuous person in my neighborhood, and now there are signs up telling me that they love me. I think it’s great, but I certainly don’t let anything like that go to my head.”