SAVANNAH — Springfield Elementary School will recognize Effingham County for its financial contribution and community impact to Catie’s Fund, a Named Fund of CURE Childhood Cancer.
On Wednesday at 1 p.m. at their end-of-year assembly, Springfield students will present a check and reveal the total amount raised for Catie’s Fund.
In 2007, Tre and Jenny Wilkins of Effingham County lost their first-born daughter, Catie, to a rare pediatric brain cancer called Medulloblastoma.
In 2011, they held their first fundraising event with 150 people in a small church social hall and raised $5,000.
Today, this event, known as Sisters on a Journey, has grown to four different dinners in four communities — Effingham, Savannah, Statesboro and Bryan County.
Last year alone, more than 2,200 people attended the dinners, which raised more than $340,000.
This year, the efforts of the community in support of Catie’s Fund resulted in the Fund’s total surpassing $1 million since its humble beginning seven years ago.
All proceeds raised by Catie’s Fund support life-saving research aimed at solving childhood cancers.

See the May 23 edition of the Effingham Herald for more details.