A Metro Vancouver teacher is in the ICU after contracting the coronavirus

According to an online fundraiser launched earlier this week in support of Tony and Darlene Lourenco, the husband and wife are both facing a difficult battle with the coronavirus responsible for creating the ongoing pandemic. “They have been through so much as a family already and know grief too well,” the GoFundMe’s description reads. 

But in an update posted to the GoFundMe campaign’s page on Friday, Nov. 13, the campaign’s organizer said Darlene, a music teacher at Cambridge Elementary in Surrey, “has been taken to the ICU as her oxygen saturation is quickly declining.”

The update continues, “No one deserves this. Darlene was just doing her job and sharing her love of music with young children. She should not be having to go through this.”

The fundraising campaign titled “Love for the Lourencos,” has blasted through its initial goal of $5,000, raising just over $15,000 to date. 

Darlene “has an amazing talent for teaching and shares her passion for music with our children daily,” the GoFundMe description explains. “Even when schools closed in the Spring, Darlene went above and beyond to create online music experiences for the families at home. She is loved so much by all who know her.”

Her husband Tony owns a small business “which has struggled to stay afloat during the pandemic,” campaign organizers added. 

“They have bills and a mortgage to pay and neither of them can work at the moment. They need our help.” 

A letter to Cambridge Elementary School parents, shared on social media and dated Oct. 28, said an individual who tested positive for the virus attended the school from Oct. 19 to 22.

According to the letter, signed by superintendent of schools Jordan Tinney, Fraser Health on that day instructed one class to stay home and self-isolate, while all other classes were encouraged to continue attending school and monitoring for potential symptoms of COVID-19.