EASTHAMPTON — The large crowd on hand at the Williston Northampton School basketball doubleheader last Friday night had no idea they were attending something much bigger than just a pair of games.

Williston’s senior class of 2025 has spent much of the last few months working tirelessly to raise money for their late classmate, Elise Ollmann-Kahle, who passed away in October due to complications from cancer. The class wanted to start an annual scholarship in Ollmann-Kahle’s name, ensuring her legacy and impact at Williston would never fade. But starting a scholarship (also called an endowed fund) requires a minimum of $50,000. That said, the Class of 2025 had a lot of work to do.

Through bake sales, T-shirt sales, donations and more, they reached that number.

So following the first of two hoop games at the school on Feb. 14, Williston Head of School Robert W. Hill III and his wife, Kathryn, addressed those sitting in the bleachers – parents, alumni, students, faculty and many more. Hill announced that the Class of 2025’s goal was no longer something to strive for – it was a reality. They had raised more than enough money through the Elise Ollmann-Kahle Class of 2025 Memorial Fund to create an annual scholarship, which would give $2,500 to a Williston student to use toward their financial-aid package every year.

Smiles, tears, hugs and everything in between spread through the bleachers at the Sabina Cain Family Athletic Center.

“People were shocked, honestly,” Williston’s Director of Athletics Jade Morris said. “They were so happy and so surprised and grateful. There were tears; it was kind of a roller coaster of emotions, quite honestly. It was really something special.”

The color pink has decorated Williston’s hallways since Ollmann-Kahle’s passing, as students continue to don their late classmate’s favorite color.

That’s one of the many ways the Class of 2025 has continued to honor and remember Ollmann-Kahle. And when Kathryn Hill, who had a brain tumor when she was young, similar to Ollman-Kahle, suggested starting a scholarship in her name to the class, they took the idea and ran with it.

“Elise affected so many people around her, so much that they wanted to come together and raise money for her legacy to live on forever,” Morris said. “That’s what this senior class has been so passionate about: making sure her name lives on. They’re on this mission, and to see them accomplish that is really something remarkable.”

Morris has only been the AD at Williston for about six months. She didn’t have the chance to meet Ollmann-Kahle on a personal level. But based on everything she has seen and heard since stepping foot on campus, Morris feels like she’s known Ollmann-Kahle as long as anybody else.

“In the short time that I have been here, I’ve felt her impact through the students without even having to meet her,” Morris said. “Everybody describes her as this bright presence who helped everybody. She was very selfless. Just special. That’s the one word that always came up whether it was students or faculty members talking about her. She was a special person that looked out for others, and she had this passion to help people.”

In the initial days and weeks following Ollmann-Kahle’s passing, Morris said the senior class felt like “they couldn’t do enough,” in the sense that Ollmann-Kahle always put her peers first, despite her illness. She was constantly there for everyone and never asked for favors in return. So those first few moments were filled with the feeling that no matter what the students did, it wouldn’t match the generous, noble actions of Ollmann-Kahle.

That is, until the recommendation of the scholarship was posed.

“Initially, they felt like they couldn’t do enough,” Morris said of the senior class. “Elise put herself out there and was there for so many people. But then I feel like it kind of turned into this, ‘We can do this, we can honor her. We need to find the right way to do it.’ And a scholarship is where they landed at. They have been so strong and so selfless, and have really embodied Elise’s best traits.”

The entire process has made Morris understand the uncommon ground she was now walking. Williston has a different feel than other places she’s been, and the way the community converged to have each other’s backs – to have Ollmann-Kahle’s back – truly opened her eyes.

Morris may just have arrived at Williston at the end of August, but she already feels the immense love the Wildcat family has for its peers. The Class of 2025 helped project that to her.

“It was kind of like an ‘a ha’ moment for me; I realized I was in the right place and in the right community,” Morris said. “They care so much about one another, and they want to lift each other up in good times and in bad. It was really great to see the strength of the Williston community… People coming together and rallying around one person, it was important for everyone to stay positive because that’s what Elise would want.”