Advertisement One other thing the Central High School senior knew about her 10 younger siblings when it comes to Christmas presents: “Don’t keep them at home, because they’ll get to them,” she said with a big-sister grin.
So she stashed their presents at a friend’s house — not knowing her family’s home at 1411 Ferry St. would catch fire Dec. 9 from a younger sibling being careless with a lighter. It burned up all their clothes, their furniture, their memories.
She didn’t know then the clothes and toys and games she’d carefully picked out and wrapped for her siblings, the ones no one was supposed to know about until Christmas morning, would be about the only possessions the family had left.
Xiong heard about the fire while working as a cashier at Panda Express. Her younger sister called, crying. She came right home.
“I saw everything,” she said. The flames. The sirens. The tears. “I was shocked.”
That night, the family was put up in a hotel by the Red Cross.
“They’d be talking about the fire, crying all over,” she said. “I had to get their minds off it.”
So she got the presents and the family had early Christmas. The girls and their mother baked cookies in the Easy-Bake oven. The boys and their father played Monopoly.
But their older sister’s thoughts were elsewhere. She thought of the admissions application and essay to the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse on her bookshelf. She’d worked for months perfecting them.
Now, ashes.
She called Jessica Thill, an adviser with Upward Bound, a program designed to help high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds get into college. Xiong had been in the program since sophomore year and was determined — is determined — to be the first in her family to attend college.
When she finally reached Thill after midnight, she apologized, told her she might not make their scheduled Tuesday meeting because her admissions papers just burned.
“It blew my mind,” Thill said. “That’s probably the last thing I’d think about.”
In subsequent weeks, Xiong served as translator for her parents, who speak little English, as they sorted through the maze of insurance adjusters, fire inspectors and social workers. The family’s been hotel-hopping as they search for a new home, but all the kids except Pa Zong didn’t miss a day of school. She took a week’s leave to help her parents.
But even with all her resilience and diplomatic skills, there were things beyond her powers. She couldn’t clothe her siblings or replace their toys or put food on the table.
No need. Students and staff in the La Crosse schools became their ATM, aid agency and toy store.
Lincoln Middle School had a clothing drive. Central High School raised about $1,100 in a “miracle minute” donation sprint. Logan High School donated $500 and heaps of clothing. Upward Bound pitched in. The Hmong community helped. The Red Cross has been there from the start.
Personal donations also flooded in, far too numerous to name.
Margaret Gnewikow, whose kids go to Logan High School, donated three children’s beds. A fire in 1993 caused major damage to her family’s North Side house, she said, and she was moved by the outpouring of donations and charity that followed.
“We tried to return the favor,” she said.
Pa Zong Xiong recently got her acceptance letter from Minneapolis Business College. She’s waiting to hear back from Western Technical College, UW-Milwaukee and UW-La Crosse.
Amid everything else, she said, she managed to redo her admissions application. She also rewrote her personal essay.
The topic? “Tell us about obstacles you’ve overcome.”
Where to begin?
Dan Simmons can be reached at (608) 791-8217 or dsimmons@lacrossetribune.com.
