Students at Sutton Elementary School gathered into the gymnasium Friday to see the results of their collection efforts for Friends of Paws.
Sutton Elementary School reveals the results of its 5th annual Friends with Paws fundraiser. @SESRoadrunners pic.twitter.com/NAWu2qFXxo
— Owensboro Times (@OwensboroTimes) March 13, 2020
In its fifth year, the annual event is a fundraiser to collect items for the local animal shelters and the Humane Society in memory of Melissa Baber, who used to work at Sutton.
The goal this year was to collect 1,700 items, but the students and staff went above and beyond by collecting 3,283 items, which included bags of dog food, toys and towels.
“I am super excited and so pumped that Sutton can be a part of the community and helping out a friend and leaving a legacy and teaching the students what it means to do things from the heart,” said teacher Tiffany Hoffman.
Hoffman, a long-time friend of Baber, made the big announcement during an assembly Friday.
“When I started out, it was in my classroom,” Hoffman said. “Our goal was 100 items, and today we raised over 3,000 items for the animal shelter.”
Jaime Quattrocchi’s fourth-grade class collected the most with 422 items. Her class wins a field trip to the Daviess County Animal Shelter.
Baber is the late daughter of Sherry Baber, who is the principal at Hager Preschool.
“She loved children, and she loved children with special needs especially and she loved animals very, very much,” Baber said as she teared up. “She would be overwhelmed to be remembered in such a nice way. She would appreciate everything they’ve done. And to think that they still would remember her five years later is phenomenal.”
