"For the sake of one child, I would have founded the Society."

       -- St. Madeleine Sophie Barat

We, Barat Foundation, are a student-run philanthropic organization dedicated to improving the lives of children in the community. In 2004, a parent at Convent of the Sacred Heart, Mr. Larry Lunt, went on an expedition to the North Pole. The sponsorships from his expedition began the Barat Foundation endowment. Mr. Lunt, along with our Headmistress, Sr. Joan Magnetti, envisioned a philanthropic board that would benefit children in the community and educate young women in the areas of philanthropy and financial literacy. Since then the endowment has expanded with further contributions from Mr. Lunt and other parents and alumnae.

A year after the establishment of the foundation, we were able to make our first grant distribution. After evaluating grant applications and making site visits, we chose four organizations that we believed best exemplified our mission statement. In a chapel service, in early May we distributed the grants to representatives from the organizations. Since then we have been in continuing correspondence with the organizations and have given volunteer support to each.

Our goal is to continue to distribute grants each year using our endowment. We not only aim to help the organizations monetarily, but through volunteer work so that we can see the effects our grant distribution has on the community.