HENDERSONVILLE — Retired Immaculate Conception Church parishioners Michael and Mary Ann Quinn wanted to help keep Catholic education alive in western North Carolina. Both had attended Catholic schools growing up, so when they heard their parish school needed some financial assistance, they wanted to make a difference.
The couple had a condominium in California which they had purchased decades ago and used as a rental property when they relocated from California to North Carolina to be closer to family back on the East Coast. They recently decided they no longer needed the condominium, so they looked into ways to be able to donate it to help set up an endowment to further Catholic education.
The Quinns donated the property to the Diocese of Charlotte, which in turn sold the property and used the proceeds to establish the Quinn Family Endowment Fund to benefit Immaculata School in Hendersonville.
The fund, set up in August 2016, has a principal of $403,000, which means the school will be able to use approximately $20,000 annually to help fund scholarships and provide other financial help to the school.
“We were happy we were able to do this,” Mary Ann Quinn said. “Hopefully, it will benefit all of the children who want a Catholic education.”
Michael Quinn volunteered for years with faith formation at Immaculate Conception Church, so it meant a lot to him to be able to give in a meaningful way to help foster Catholic education.
“Both of us went through Catholic grammar school, high school and college,” Mary Ann Quinn said. “We just felt that when we heard the school was having some financial challenges here, we remembered that, and knowing there aren’t that many Catholic schools in western North Carolina, we wanted to help.
“This section of the state seems to be growing and so we didn’t want that to go by the wayside, not having a Catholic school around here,” she explained.
“Many people set up an endowment through a bequest in their will,” said Jim Kelley, diocesan development director. “However, for those who own more than one residence, whether it be in North Carolina or another state, making a gift of one of those residences – just like the Quinns have done – is a wonderful way to support a parish, school, ministry or the diocese.
For details about establishing an endowment or providing an estate gift, contact Ray-Eric Correia, diocesan director of planned giving, at 704-370-3364 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter
CHARLOTTE — Charlotte Catholic High School announces that seniors Madison Marie Huber and Cade Allan MacQuarrie have been named National Merit Scholarship finalists.
Huber is president of the Spanish Honor Society and vice president of the Girls Who Code Club at CCHS. She is a member of the National Honor Society and served as a graduation marshal during her sophomore and junior years. She volunteers at St. Mark School and for Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, tutors students in grades 6-11, has worked as a mayoral campaign volunteer, and has played the piano for 13 years. She is the daughter of Steve and Sue Huber of Huntersville.
MacQuarrie is a member of the National Honor Society and the Spanish Honor Society. He has served as Honor Council president and as a graduation marshal during his sophomore and junior years. He volunteers at the Angels and Sparrows soup kitchen, as an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion at St. Mark Church in Huntersville, and at the Davidson Police Department. He has played club, junior varsity and varsity lacrosse as well as junior varsity football. He is the son of John and Margo MacQuarrie of Huntersville.
Nearly 1.6 million high school juniors from more than 22,000 high schools nationwide entered this year’s competition by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test last fall. Approximately 16,000 students qualified as semifinalists, representing less than 1 percent of all U.S. high school seniors. From this group of outstanding students, 15,000 finalists have been named, and more than half of all finalists will receive either a Merit Scholarship or a Special Scholarship from a corporate sponsor. The winners will be announced between April and July. They will join more than 300,000 other distinguished students who have earned the National Merit Scholar title.
The National Merit Scholarship program was founded in 1955 to distinguish and honor academically talented American high school students and to encourage them to develop their talents and skills to the fullest. The competition is very rigor-ous, and scholarship winners are chosen based on their skills, abilities, extracurricular accomplishments and potential for future success.