Fifth grader Jackie Barrett was in class at Sippican School one day when her friends made an announcement that brought her to tears.

Having been secretly planning an event for Barrett for some time, the ten girls told her that they were organizing a juvenile diabetes fundraiser.

A longtime sufferer of the disease, Barrett said she was moved.

“They just stood up in class and said they were doing a walk for juvenile diabetes,” Barrett said. “I just started to cry.”

On October 12, the girls held a two-mile walk around School Street, which raised $2,459.25 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

The young organizers for the event - Lexi Semead, Natalie Nilson, Georgia Toland, Alex Old, Hana Medgin, Sofia Sudofsky, Emily Wilson, Ellie Whitney, Kate Marsden, and Fiona Lonergan – said they decided to take action one day at recess after having witnessed Barrett’s struggle with the disease.

“The thing is that Jackie is our best friend,” Lonergan said. “Sometimes she gets low in blood sugar or forgets her insulin pump and has to go home. She works super hard and she never gives up.”

To get their plans in motion, the girls began working with Principal Lyn Rivet on organizing the walk.

“The girls were fabulous in each step of the way,” Rivet said. “I always asked them what did they expect and we had to do some tweaking on a few things. I was just their guide on the side. They were awesome.”

The girls presented their plans to the School Committee and even held an all-school meeting, during which they each gave speeches on how important it is to support research that might help Barrett one day.

The ambitious fifth graders even had a theme song – “Stronger” by Kelly Clarkson.

“It was just fun. There were difficult times doing it and times we’ll never forget,” Lonergan said.

Jackie’s older sister, Julia Barrett, also helped out. Julia, a student at Old Rochester Regional Junior High School, collected donations, held bake sales, and made bracelets to sell at the walk.

At the finish line, Jackie Barrett handed out homemade muffins for the participants to thank them for all they had done.

Having set out to raise $1,000, the girls said they were thrilled to have more than doubled their goal.

As for next year, the girls are hoping to make this an annual event.

“We want this to be bigger, “ Whitney said. “We hope more people will join in the walk.”

Lonergan agreed.

“Next year will be our last year here, but we want to keep this walk going because Jackie is not the only one in we know with diabetes,” she said. “When we finished the walk we all basically started to cry.”