By Jessica Able, Record Staff Writer
Students and staff of Trinity High School organized a fundraiser that netted $77,000 for Kosair Children’s Hospital.
Their effort honored Owen McMasters, a Trinity student who died in February after a four-year battle with leukemia.
The money will be used to renovate the gaming room at the children’s hospital in downtown Louisville, a news release from the school said.
Trinity coordinated the sale of “United for Owen” T-shirts at area schools, originally aiming to collect $10,000. Students presented a $50,000 check to representatives of Kosair on May 3. Since that date, they’ve collected an additional $27,000.
Assumption High School, Sacred Heart Academy and St. Xavier High School also assisted in the fundraiser.
Noah Means-Simonsen, who graduated last month from Trinity, was one of the organizers of the T-shirt sale and said the students at Trinity wanted a way to pay tribute to McMasters.
“We asked Beth, his mother, the best way to help out and she responded with a physical thing we could actually achieve and it took off,” he said.
The gaming room at Kosair is where Trinity students met McMasters when they visited him during his treatment.
Means-Simonsen’s father was recently diagnosed with cancer and he has received support from the entire McMasters family, he said.
“When my dad got diagnosed, Owen’s father, who is actually an oncologist, really helped our family out,” Means-Simonsen said. The Trinity graduate, who plans to study biology at Gallaudet University this fall, said he wants to be a pediatric oncologist. He credits McMasters and his own father with influencing his career choice.
Plans for the gaming room are underway and construction is expected to begin later this year.
