Benefactor helps keep Nazareth High School open

EAST FLATBUSH, Brooklyn

Supporters were able to raise $700,000 in just six weeks to keep the school from closing.

Students will still learn calculus and athletes will still compete now that Nazareth High School has been saved.

Students, teachers and parents cheered when they learned after six hard weeks the school fund raising effort met its goal.

It is thanks in a big way to Sharon Patrick. The business executive is loaning the school $500,000 and donating another $20,000.

"There's a time in your life when you pick something you give back to," Patrick said.

She's giving back to 310 hard working students.

"We are graduating 98% and we're sending 96% of them off to college," said Providencia Quiles, Principal.

Erica Miles wants to study nursing.

"We had to do many fundraisers and bake sales in order to get the money up for the school, $700,000. It means so much to us," Miles said.

Nazareth is a sports powerhouse, especially when it comes to basketball. So the continuation of the school is extremely important to the student athletes.

Guard Clarence Ciceron was unsure of his future 10 weeks ago.

"It would have been an important year for me to play basketball but now it's looking kind of shaky. I don't know if I'll play next year at another school," Ciceron had said.

Now, it's a different story.

"Now I have a bigger chance of still staying and playing college basketball," Ciceron said.

Principal Quiles says there is a lot of work moving forward, and Sharon Patrick will be a new trustee ready to see Nazareth succeed.

"You can't wring your hands, you've got to get involved," Patrick said.

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