A funeral service for 16-year-old Brenda Soto of Burke was held Friday April 29 at Fairfax Memorial Funeral Home. Soto was a student at Lake Braddock Secondary School, where she was found unresponsive in a bathroom just before 6 p.m. on April 20. The Office of the Medical Examiner hasn’t released the cause and manner of her death.

Paola Zambrana of Burke helped organize a vigil at the school for Soto the following Sunday.

“She was just a young teenager who was loved dearly by her family and friends,” Zambrana said.

Zambrana’s own daughter went to elementary school with Soto and was also a Lake Braddock classmate. Though she wasn’t close friends with Soto’s mother initially, after hearing from the school about the girl’s death, she went immediately to Soto’s doorstep and asked how she could help.

Zambrana went on to set up a GoFundMe page for Soto and her parents, Burke residents Monica Soto and Juan Carlos Loza, to help with medical, funeral and other costs. As of going to press, the page has raised $18,242 of a goal $20,000.

“Once I heard her story, it was just so devastating,” Zambrana said. “It can literally be any of us, as a mother. I did what I could to help them out.”

Zambrana described Soto as someone who “loved making people laugh -- she was a goofball and even loved more protecting people.”

Zambrana learned Soto had been going through depression, despite maintaining her grades in school.

“As a mother it's my calling now to spread awareness on depression and how it's affecting our kids.”

The GoFundMe page Zambana set up for the Soto-Loza family is available online at www.gofundme.com/brendasoto.