To the editor:

In the May 27 Alexandria Times, Benjamin Dawes wrote a letter to the editor, “Silberberg ignored the pandemic.” His assertions about Allison Silberberg couldn’t be further from the truth. I wonder who or what prompted him to write such a misleading piece?

Silberberg’s call to action in response to the pandemic has been outstanding, and she was not a public official.

As a private citizen, she jumped into action immediately as the pandemic was approaching. In 2020, she served on two local nonprofit boards, Community Lodgings and Friends of the Alexandria Mental Health Center, both of which serve either our most vulnerable or those with mental health challenges. Both organizations ramped up quickly to help during the harrowing year.

In the late spring, a group of residents created the Alexandria Community Alliance to deliver food, cleaning supplies and diapers to anyone who needed help. Based upon her immediate involvement, Silberberg was asked to serve on the board. She recruited others to join the all-volunteer effort. Together, ACA delivered food and supplies to 30 to 50 families a week until the fall of 2020. She donated to local nonprofits and urged others to join in helping our most vulnerable.

In August, Silberberg volunteered for Casa Chirilagua’s food distribution. She wrote an impressive column for The Washington Post about Casa Chirilagua’s amazing work as well as the growing hunger in our midst.

She has repeatedly praised the Alexandria Health Department for their outstanding leadership in directing our city’s response to the pandemic and their excellent execution of the vaccination program. It is important to remember that the direction and guidelines for our city’s response came from the Commonwealth of Virginia, and were put in place by AHD.

She also wrote a moving column that ran in The Alexandria Times on March 26, 2020. She gave calming, specific guidance for young and old alike.

When the vaccine started to become available, Silberberg was inundated with calls and emails from seniors who needed help navigating the system. She put them in touch with Senior Services of Alexandria and the Van Dorn Pharmacy on the West End, even though she had no official role in the city. That’s leadership.

Silberberg is not one to toot her own horn, but she is someone who gets things done, especially for our most vulnerable. As she has stated in every debate during this campaign, if elected as Alexandria’s next mayor, Allison would remain steadfast in her commitment to building a post COVID-19 economic recovery that supports Alexandria’s businesses and our most vulnerable.

Allison Silberberg’s actions during COVID-19 demonstrate that she cares for the people of our community and is the mayor you can trust.

-Carter Flemming, Alexandria