Mercy Academy edged out five other schools to win the 2021 Alumnae Unite fundraising challenge to promote women and girls April 16.
The four all-girl Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese of Louisville — Assumption High School, Mercy, Presentation and Sacred Heart academies — along with Bethlehem and Holy Cross high schools teamed up to raise money for their schools with the help of their alumnae.
From April 14 to April 16, alumnae were encouraged to financially support their schools’ annual funds. The school with the highest percentage of participation won the challenge. Those who contributed to the school between July 1, 2020, through April 16 counted toward the total.
Mercy saw 20.91 percent of its alumnae donate to the school. Presentation had 17.36 percent participation. Assumption was a close third with 16.83 percent and Sacred Heart drew participation from 15.51 percent of alumnae. Holy Cross had 10.2 percent of its alumnae participate and Bethlehem closed out the group with 7 percent alumnae participation.
In total, the six schools raised more than $276,629 from 3,521 alumnae. According to an announcement from the schools, the challenge has two goals:
Its mission is to encourage women who’ve graduated from these institutions “to give back to their alma mater’s annual fund in support of girls’ education and to increase awareness about the importance of women’s philanthropy,” the announcement said.
This is the first year the co-educational Bethlehem and Holy Cross high schools participated in the challenge, which was limited to the all-girl schools for the first five years and known as #RivalsUnite4Girls.
