Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 17, 2024 / 16:30 pm
Seventeen-year-old high school senior Susan Lutzke may have successfully saved her childhood Catholic elementary school from closing after raising more than $400,000 to address the institution’s financial difficulties.
The principals of St. Bede School in Ingleside, Illinois, announced on Dec. 13, 2023, that if the money wasn’t raised by Jan. 26, the school could face closure. Loving her experience at St. Bede, Lutzke immediately sprung into action.
“Honestly, I didn’t really think about it that much,” she told CNA in a Jan. 5 interview. “We found out the night of Dec. 13, and we were kind of sad about it. And then the next morning I made a GoFundMe in the car in the parking lot at my high school.”
The crowdfunding campaign almost instantly began generating funds, with almost 900 donations ranging from $10 to $50,000.