“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.”