On March 4, Maddie Thompson and her family drove from Hannibal, Mo., to visit Aquin Central Catholic High School in Freeport to thank her friends there.

“Mighty Maddie,” as she is known on her Caring Bridge page, is a 7-year-old cancer warrior. Her mom, Katra (Schirmer) Thompson is a 1995 Aquin alumnus.

Her grandmother, Patricia Schirmer, is a retired Aquin English teacher.

In June, Maddie was diagnosed with brain and spinal cancer.

The Aquin Servant Leaders adopted Maddie and have held fundraisers all year to send her and her family on a “Make A Wish”-type trip  to Minneapolis.

The whole school gathered for a pep assembly to welcome Maddie and her family when they came to Aquin.

The Servant Leaders select a person or program to help every year. For Maddie, they decided to raise money “more for uplifting their spirits” than to pay bills, says Servant Leader James Gustafson, a senior.

In addition to sending the family on vacation in Minneapolis, along with gas and gift cards for the January trip, they also sent “care packages” for Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s and St. Patrick’s Day and will send an Easter gift soon.

Tom Fellers, also a senior Servant Leader, said the group’s individual “actions seem small to the person doing the action.”

“We don’t realize what an impact we made,” added Josie Ehlbeck, another senior Servant Leader.

“It’s nice because Mrs. Schirmer was always nice to us,” Griffin Koester, junior Servant Leader, said.

The group credits the Aquin and Freeport communities for making their good works possible.

“Their generosity is a lot of our success,” Fellers said.