In the News
By Jonathan Hunley
In Fredericksburg Free Press
Ashley Ranalli didn’t clap.
While most everyone around her applauded Tuesday night at President Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress, Ranalli stood and instead held photos of her colleagues Avery Lentz, Helen Dhue and Maddie Hollis.
The 41-year-old Ranalli and her friends are among an estimated 1,000-plus National Park Service workers who were fired recently due to their “probationary” employment status. Ranalli received word Feb. 14. A happy Valentine’s Day it wasn’t.
The layoffs were part of cuts made by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, and U.S. Sen. Mark Warner invited Ranalli, a former park ranger at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, to Washington for the president’s address to lawmakers.
Warner, a Democrat and former Virginia governor, said he wanted Trump to look into the audience at the U.S. Capitol and see someone “affected by his short-sighted and reckless choices.”
A long career path
Ranalli, a Fredericksburg resident, was living her dream as a national park ranger.
It had taken her five years to get there. She had previously worked as public school English teacher who spent her summers working as a seasonal employee for the Park Service to gain valuable experience. But then, in the fall, she was hired as a full-time volunteer and youth program coordinator at the Fredericksburg operation.
“It genuinely was like a perfect job for me,” Ranalli said Wednesday.
She was good at her work, too. A recent performance review described her efforts as “excellent” and “outstanding,” and noted that she “goes the extra mile.”
However, that didn’t prevent a layoff notice from the Department of the Interior.
Now, Ranalli is a survivor of thyroid cancer who has no health insurance.
Warner’s office noted Monday that, while the Trump administration has declined to make public the scope of the Park Service cuts, the National Parks Conservation Association estimates that in a period of just weeks, 9 percent of NPS staff have been lost to mass firings and resignations, adding to hundreds of vacant positions that can’t be filled due to a hiring freeze.
So, Ranalli’s immediate task was to represent her fired peers in D.C. at Trump’s speech.
That ended up being not so simple. She and her partner, Ryan, had to wait through two and a half hours of Interstate 95 traffic after an OmniRide commuter bus caught on fire.
Once they arrived in the capital, Ranalli had to race to appear at a press conference with Senate Democrats. She said her cheeks turned red because she had to sprint there.
She was dressed to make a statement, however. She wanted her appearance to symbolize being a ranger because, well, she couldn’t wear her uniform.
Her outfit took a bit of work to put together. She had gone to downtown Fredericksburg and told her story to small business owners, who gave her recommendations on how to look the best while shopping with local companies.
Her clothes came from Blue Hour Vintage in downtown Fredericksburg. Her makeup was applied by Spotsylvania County artist Heather Thitsone, and her hair was done by BobbyPins & Blush in Central Park.
“I wanted just to be a representative of my town,” Ranalli said. “It is not just me that’s affected by this. The community’s affected by these job losses.”
Looking good wasn’t easy to pay for, though. She had to use money borrowed from Ryan’s family because funds are hard to come by these days.
A capital affair
Ranalli was nervous speaking at the press conference, too, which was an experience she wasn’t used to.
“I mostly talk about people from 1864,” she said.
Some help from political veterans got her through her short oration. Warner held the ranger’s hat she brought, and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a former presidential candidate, moved the microphone for her so it would be positioned correctly.
Later, when Ranalli got to the House of Representatives gallery, she ended up sitting not far from Elon Musk, the billionaire behind DOGE.
She watched Trump’s speech, faithfully clutching her friends’ pictures while seemingly surrounded by the president’s supporters.
Then she and Ryan went home late Tuesday night. I-95 traffic was light on the way back.
What’s next for Ranalli? She’s hoping to work as a long-term substitute teacher in Louisa County, where she was employed in the past. But that would be only a temporary gig.
The federal worker layoffs just seem dystopian to her. She wants to know: Where is the adult in the room?
“I did the American dream, right?” she said of landing her former job. “I worked really hard. And I got noticed — among very young candidates who are all like pedigreed people. I worked for this. I earned this.”
And now it’s gone.
###
