NATCHEZ — The children at Holy Family Early Learning Center left an indelible impression on Carly Elizabeth Hughes’ heart during her service trips with Boston College to Natchez.

Hughes, originally from New Jersey, became instantly passionate about the school and its children, her mother, Irene Vouvalides said.

Hughes graduated from Boston College in 2011 and was diagnosed with gastric cancer in September 2012. Hughes lost her battle with cancer on Feb. 17, 2013.

Hughes’ family created the Carly’s Kids Foundation in Hughes’ memory to raise money for gastric cancer research and Holy Family school.

“My daughter was so passionate about the school,” Vouvalides said. “She told me when she came home from the first service trip that she felt like she was home.”

Vouvalides and the foundation presented a $15,000 check to Holy Family Tuesday, a donation Sister Bernadette McNamara called a blessing from heaven.

“It’s an answer to our prayers,” she said.

Holy Family was once an elementary school, but was forced to downsize because of lack of funding.

It is the mission of the foundation, Vouvalides said, to raise enough money for the school so that it can once again be an elementary school.

“I am looking for funding from corporations, and I’m looking for funding anywhere I can,” Vouvalides said.

Holy Family is down to 75 children this year, McNamara said.

“It’s the lowest we’ve ever been,” she said.

The Carly’s Kids donation will help the school pay its bills, McNamara said, and give raises to teachers who have not had raises in several years.

Hughes’ stepfather, Tony, who was an educator for 40 years, 25 of which was spent as a principal, said he is impressed with Holy Family and its students.

“What the teachers are doing at Holy Family is really incredible,” he said. “And they have less to work with than other schools in the community.

“Education is the future of this country, and certainly in Mississippi, any high-quality educational opportunity is something to cherish and support.”

Vouvalides said she has taken her daughter’s vision for the school and made it her mission.

The foundation has a marathon, a golf outing and fashion show planned as fundraisers. Vouvalides has also written to talk show hosts Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres hoping to bring national attention to Carly’s Kids, Holy Family and gastric cancer awareness.

“We’re doing whatever we can,” she said. “We’re a small group right now trying to tackle something very large.”

Hughes’ parents say they know their daughter would be ecstatic about the work the foundation is doing.

“Carly would come home with pictures of the kids, and it was just such a wonderful experience for her,” Tony said. “That’s one of the reasons we wanted to do this.”

McNamara’s eyes fill with tears when she speaks of Hughes.

“The children loved her, we all did,” she said. “We are all Carly’s kids.”

For more information about Carly’s Kids or to donate to the foundation, visit carlyskidsfoundation.com.