The Catskill Elementary School Student Council raised $2562 this December to help an area family pay the medical bills and other expenses for their baby daughter, Clara Ray Morton, who has a rare birth defect known as Heterotaxy, which affects the heart and other organs (the check says $2550, but they picked up another $12 donation just before presenting the money to the Mortons). This was the largest fundraiser the CES Student Council has ever sponsored. They would like to thank everyone who donated and helped raise awareness to make this fundraiser such a success. As Clara Ray’s parents, Johanna and Craig Morton, both said, “The awareness of the congenital heart defects and the heterotaxy are so important.”
Pictured here, fifth graders Chase and Emily Allen, who spearheaded the fundraiser, present the Morton family with the money they raised.
The student council sold paper hearts at school for $1 each to help raise the money, and Emily even donated $500 she won in an essay writing contest.
“I would like to thank my Student Council members for the time and effort they put into this,” added CES Student Council advisor Barbara Erceg. “We are all about heart and this is something you just can’t teach.”
The Student Council’s efforts were featured in a December 15 article in The Catskill Daily Mail. You can read the article here…