Students from the Lower School at Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child raised nearly $600 to help rebuild Paris’ word-famous Notre Dame Cathedral following the devastating fire on April 15, 2019.

The funds, totaling, $573, will be donated to the La Fondation Notre Dame Porteurs D’Espérance.

Katherine Castano ’27 and Martha Grace Madigan ’27, of the school’s Club 4 Change, led the charge with the help of Sara Kaplan ’26 and Kenzie Schiller ’26, collecting donations for two gift baskets that their classmates could enter to win by purchasing raffle tickets for .25 cents each.

“Some students bought hundreds of tickets. It was insane,” said Lower School math teacher Ann Higgins. “They would come in with $80 and we would ask if they wanted change and they would say ‘no.’”

In addition to the generosity of students donating items for the gift baskets and purchasing tickets, Higgins was impressed by the desire of the students to step forward for the cause, including sacrificing recess time to plan and implement the project.

“It was all them,” Higgins said. “It was just great to see.”

The highlight came at the end of the year when the winning raffle students were chosen, with both belonging to beloved former teacher Anne Lofredo’s homeroom.

Higgins noted that Lofredo, who passed away suddenly during the 2018-19 school year, was particularly saddened by the cathedral fire.