The ABCs of Love: The Harms

Hope and Michael Harms grew up in Manassas Park, and their romance started  in a typical, high school sweetheart fashion. 

“We both went to Manassas Park High. I was a junior and she was a sophomore.  That year I didn't play football, and a friend came over to paint me up for the football game and Hope came with her.  So the first time we met, she was painting my half-naked body,” Michael said with a grin.

“He was getting ready for the game.  We put glitter on him, painted paw prints and Manassas Park colors,” Hope said.

“We didn't start going out right away because it was wrestling season.  I wanted to and I had a good hunch she wanted to, but I had to wait until wrestling season was over.  We talked on the phone a lot, passed notes in class. 

It’s a credit to her, because most of the time all I would talk about was wrestling.  The season ended like March 9, and we started dating March 12.” 

Many high school romances end with the couple separating to head off to college. Hope and Michael went to different schools, but they stayed in Virginia and continued to date while she attended James Madison University and he Virginia Tech. 

After college they returned to Manassas Park, and found their way into teaching.  Michael started as a substitute and became a teaching assistant.  Several teachers advocated for him to become a teacher and he went to school to obtain a masters and teaching license.  He’s now a special education teacher at Manassas Park Middle School where he teaches eighth grade math.  This is his fifth year coaching the high school wrestling team.  This year, he’s also coaching wrestling at the middle school.

Hope knew she wanted to teach and graduated a year after Michael with a teaching degree in art.  She couldn’t find a position teaching art, but still began working in the school division.

“I started with subbing, then a permanent sub position, then a teaching assistant position.  I couldn't find an art teaching position, so I started doing special education, and I loved it.”  Hope now works as an instructional aid at Manassas Park Elementary.  She works with special needs students, grades three through five.  In March, Hope will began work on her Master’s in special education. 

When Hope started working in Manassas Park schools in 2006, most kids didn’t know the pair were a couple. “Students started figuring it out. They’d see us at Panera (Bread) and ask, ‘Are you and Ms. Smith dating?,' and I’d tell them we were engaged," Michael said. 

“For a lot of people it was expected, as we’d been together for seven years,” Hope added.

They find working in similar fields a boon because in addition to sharing holidays and work schedules, they are both very familiar with the challenges they face working with special needs students in Manassas Park. 

Sharing holidays allows the Harms to spend time hiking and traveling. They’ve backpacked the Appalachian trail together and the Harms aid children with disabilities on the island nation of Jamaica. 

Two years ago, they began volunteering at the West Haven Children's Home in Copse, Jamaica and have even teamed up with several others to form a non-profit charity organization, Children with Disabilities Fund International.  Initially gathering donations from family and friends, the Harms have been able to provide wheelchairs, uniforms, shower-chairs and even toothbrushes for disabled children at the orphanage.  “Our goal is to some day buy a house near the orphanage for a day therapy and education center,” Hope said.

For more information about the Harms charity work, contact CDFI at hope.harms@thecdfi.org.