Class Act:
Catherine Shivers
Nominated by:
Cheryl Buscemi
Nomination Story:
Catherine is a 16-year-old Sophomore at Walpole High School. In late 2013, she started a fundraiser called “Catherine’s Cause” in tribute to her grandfather who several months earlier lost a lower leg to arterial disease. In March, 2014 Catherine’s grandfather unexpectedly passed away. Her goal was to raise $3,500.00 originally, however, through all of her efforts, in selling raffle tickets and awarding wonderful gifts and gift baskets to the winners she raised a total of $8,770.00. This amount of money will provide prosthetic limbs for three individuals. She contacted an organization known as “Limbs for Life” which is a global non-profit organization that provides lower leg prosthetics to individuals who have financial hardship and otherwise would not be able to afford a prosthetic.
In May, 2014 she set up a booth at Walpole day in an effort to show awareness and raise money for her cause. All proceeds from this event were donated to the “Limbs for Life” foundation in memory of her Grandfather. She wanted to be able to give something back to this foundation since she saw the quality of life in her grandfather improve once he was able to walk again with a prosthetic limb.
She took the time and put in so much effort, soliciting prizes and awards for the raffle ticket winners. She had received a donated signed baseball from the Red Sox signed by Dustin Pedroia and even a donated set of red sox tickets amongst many other prizes which were all donated to help her cause. She had mentioned in conversation that the most rewarding part of her volunteer work was knowing that she helped others achieve the dream of walking again. One incident that motivated her volunteer work was receiving an email from the Executive Director at Limbs for Life saying she notified the first amputee that they would finally be getting their new prosthetic limb. This individual had been waiting for this call since September of 2013. She also stated that she will continue to let others know what she gained from this experience and that the feeling overwhelmed her knowing she had made such a difference in someone’s life. I feel that this young girl deserves this award and I am nominating her for this award as I feel she is an inspiration to other’s and maybe someone else will learn from her experience and efforts.