Students and teachers at Gelinas Junior High have raised more than $10,000 for Stony Brook Long Island Children's Hospital – and two anonymous donors have matched that amount, resulting in a donation of about $30,000 to the new hospital.

They met their goal Monday night at a fundraiser they called "A Touch of Class," which featured performances from the school's chamber orchestra and refreshments served by the school's National Junior Honor Society. They entered the night about $3,000 shy of their mark, and when they got there, it represented the school's largest-ever fundraising effort.

"By far this is the biggest. This is amazing," principal Gus Huber said.

Proceeds from the upcoming winter dance for eighth and ninth graders will also benefit the children's hospital, according to Brian Scripture, a Spanish teacher who also oversees the student government. Scripture said the fundraising project has created an incredible buzz among students, who would frequently talk about it and ask if the school had reached its goal yet.

He was one of the organizers of a student-versus-faculty basketball tournament last week, which raised close to $2,000 for the children's hospital. He said the fundraisers thus far have combined fun with philanthropy and volunteerism on purpose.

"We want [the students] to realize that giving can be giving can be good, giving can be fun," Scripture said. "Giving is not a chore."

Chantel Salzano, a home and career skills teacher who runs the honor society, echoed that sentiment.

"They're super excited to help," she said as she stuck toothpicks into hot meatball hors d'oeuvres fresh out of the pot for the kids to serve. "They feel like they're really part of the community."

The event was attended not only by students and their families, but also by doctors and other faculty members of the hospital, including Marian Evinger, a Three Village resident who is a researcher in the Department of Pediatrics.

"I think it does a lot to motivate the faculty to organize the children's hospital," she said. "It's important to realize what the community base is."

Many faculty members at the university and in the Three Village school district received a special invitation from Phil Gelfer, the orchestra teacher and conductor of the chamber orchestra. He has a personal connection to the idea of a children's hospital in town. According to the invitation, his son Daniel suffered a traumatic brain injury 15 years ago and spent three months in the hospital's pediatric intensive care unit. He recovered after what Gelfer described as expert care received at Stony Brook.

"This project is indeed close to my heart," he said.

Executives at Stony Brook University Medical Center announced their intent last June to expand the current in-house children's facilities into a separate state-of-the-art facility, for which they'd need to raise about $80 million. Since then, a variety of charitable events, including an art gallery opening, gala at Atlantis Marine World, and restaurant week, have helped move the fundraising along, although the hospital won't say how much has been raised so far.

The students themselves might not know all the details, but some of them said the same thing Monday night: what they had accomplished was very, very cool.

"It's cool how everyone's getting together, the whole school, coming up with ideas," said ninth grader Holly Fiorenti.

Her friend, ninth grader Sarah Amblard, agreed. "It's helping so many people," she said.