A Centre County fourth grader is giving back to her community in a big way.

 10 year old wanted to raise $10,000 for Centre County PAWS for her 10th birthday. In just two months, she reached her goal.

“I was just really surprised that we actually raised it because I thought we were only going to raise half the goal or something small,” she said.

The $10,000 will go toward the organization’s biggest expense – medical care.

“We definitely didn’t expect she would raise this much,” Lisa Bahr, Director of Operations for PAWS, said. “I just want to encourage young people to know that they can really make a difference. That $10,000 is going to make a huge difference to us this year and $1,000 would have made a difference, even just donations of paper towels would have made a difference. If you’re interested in helping, you can.”

Katherine said her efforts have inspired her classmates.

“One person in the third grade class was inspired to raise money for homeless people,” she said.

Her school, Port Matilda Elementary School, donated some money on her behalf, too.

Katherine said she plans to raise money for PAWS again in the future.