Students at Sacred Heart School will soon be examining bugs,
analyzing water flow and engaging in hands on science experiments
thanks to a $2,000 donation from the Connie O’Connor Education
Fund.
Students at Sacred Heart School will soon be examining bugs, analyzing water flow and engaging in hands on science experiments thanks to a $2,000 donation from the Connie O’Connor Education Fund.
“It’s wonderful,” Principal Kathy O’Donnell said. “It’s nice for the kids to know someone who went here remembers them and that’s one of the wonderful things about being in a small town.”
Joan Perreira, organizer of the fund, said they usually raise around $1,500, but because of incredible support from the community this year, they managed to raise $6,000.
“It has just been amazing,” she said. “I received checks in the mail from people as far away as Modesto I don’t even know. They just heard about the story and felt compelled to donate.”
Perreira’s daughter, Connie Colleen O’Connor, who the fund was created for, was killed in a car accident in 1996. She was raised and educated in Hollister, went on to college and came back to teach here.
One day, while attending a friend of the family’s funeral, Connie told her mother “Mommy, if you’re alive when it’s my time to go, please make sure all the money raised goes to my children.”
By her children, she meant her students, and Perreira said she’s never forgotten that conversation. For the past eight years, she has diligently raised money for Sunnyslope School, Sacred Heart and the Children’s House Montessori School.
To make sure the money goes directly to the students and isn’t spent on other things, Perreira said the schools are asked to write a list of needs and wants before they receive money.
“We want to make sure every penny goes toward education,” she said.
The science kits Sacred Heart will purchase allow the younger students hands on science education. Perreira’s granddaughter and O’Connor’s namesake “Colleen” is a second-grader at Sacred Heart, and she said it’s special to know the money given to her school is because of her aunt she never knew.
“It’s really neat to know my aunt went here and had the same teachers as I do,” she said.
Vice Principal and Teacher Bernadette Pipal said most of the money Sacred Heart receives usually goes to science.
“We used the money last year to do a seed experiment and the students got to watch the difference between plants growing in the sun and cold temperatures,” she said.
Perreira said giving the money to the schools is a great feeling, and helps keep her daughter’s memory alive.
Perreira said, “I’m really happy something good has come out of something so bad and that the schools are benefiting from this money, because this is what Connie wanted.”
Christine Tognetti can be reached at 637-5566, ext. 330 or at [email protected].
