NATCHEZ — Holy Family School students can soon add sliding and climbing to their lists of “things I did at school today.”

That’s all thanks to a donation of brand-new playground equipment from New Jersey-based Carly’s Kids Foundation in honor of Boston College student Carly Elizabeth Hughes, who traveled to work at Holy Family on service trips.

Carly graduated from Boston College in 2011 and was diagnosed with gastric cancer in September 2012.

She lost her battle with cancer on Feb. 17, 2013, but Carly’s family is continuing her passion for Holy Family alive through the foundation.

Carly’s mother, Irene Vouvalides of Closter, N.J., said she visited Holy Family and saw the students were playing on the blacktop at the school and had no playground equipment.

School administrator Sister Bernadette McNamara said the school previously had a swing set.

“But it was unsafe, so it was condemned,” she said.

Vouvalides said she and Carly’s boyfriend, Michael Hughes of Rye, N.Y., thought the children needed new playground equipment.

“The only place the kids have to play on is the blacktop, and we thought this would give them something to play on outside,” she said.

Members of the Knights of Peter Claver worked Friday to assemble the equipment, and McNamara said the children are anxious to try it out.

“They have been looking down there at it, longingly,” she said, laughing. “We’ve been here since 1890, and the children here have never had that kind of equipment; they’ve never had anything even close to it. I’m just so happy for the children.”

The equipment, which cost $7,000, is similar to a fort and includes two slides.

McNamara said she is grateful to Hughes’ family and Carly’s Kids Foundation for their ongoing generosity to the school.

The foundation, which also pledges money for cancer research, donated $15,000 to Holy Family in October, money that allowed the school to give a raise to teachers who had not had one in several years. The foundation also donated $2,000 for computers and $5,000 for first-grade reading material.

Holy Family was once an elementary school, but was forced to downsize to serve students between the ages of 2 and 5 in pre-K through kindergarten 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.

Vouvalides said her work for Holy Family through the foundation is to ensure her daughter’s memory and love for Holy Family is lasting.

“She came home a different person after she worked at Holy Family,” Vouvalides said. “She was so enthused about the school and about those babies.”

Carly majored in education at Boston College, and Michael said she found a home at Holy Family School.

“I think if you had seen her down there at Holy Family, that’s where she was completely in her element,” he said.

“Every time you would turn around, she would have a different kid in her arms. She was so happy and so full of love for them.

“That was the type of person she was, always trying to have fun. We thought the best way to carry on that was through the foundation.”

McNamara said Carly’s Kids has been a true blessing to Holy Family.

“Carly had a special affection for the school, and Carly is still working for this school,” she said.

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