She taught for 39 years and always at Catholic schools. When she died May 9, Mary Kaye Happ’s husband looked for a way to memorialize his wife’s teaching career. One day, Larry Happ found it.

On Wednesday, a statue of newly canonized Carlo Acutis was blessed outside the former Holy Family School in Oglesby. It merged recently into the Academy of Carlo Acutis.

For Happ, the timing was perfect. A new school year has begun, and the memorial to Mary Kaye (a plaque is forthcoming) now graces the Oglesby campus, the last place she taught. Also, the school’s new patron was raised to the altars just days ago.

It makes sainthood a reality for them – that you don’t have to be a person that lived 200, 300, 500 years ago.

—  Deb Myers, principal at Academy of Carlo Acutis

“Mary Kaye always told Father [Paul] Carlson, ‘If I ever win the big lottery, I’ll build you a school,’” Happ said. “Well, after she passed, I knew I wanted to do something with her memorial money – and I didn’t care what I had to put toward it.”

Happ said he was thinking about a permanent fixture at one of the schools. The light bulb went on when he passed a cemetery with a bronze statue and wondered if he could fund a statue of Carlo Acutis, who was canonized Sunday in Rome by Pope Leo XIV.

Happ made a few calls and learned there indeed was a bronze statue of Acutis, although its fabricators insisted it be sold to a church or school. Happ contacted local Catholic pastors and showed them pictures of the statue.

“And I said, ‘This is what I want to do for Mary Kaye, if you guys are willing,’” Happ said. “They thought that was a great idea. And so I gave them the company, I gave them the details, and I said, ‘Whatever it takes, the school’s not putting a dime toward it.”

The timing of it all was “very fitting,” said the Very Rev. Thomas Otto, pastor of St. Baptist de La Salle Parish in La Salle.

“And of course,” Otto said, “in memory of a beloved teacher who gave her life to serving and handing on the faith to the youth.”

Happ declined to disclose the cost of the statue but extended his thanks to the many donors who offered memorials at Mary Kaye’s passing.

Both the statue and the canonization were hits with students who are learning more about the academy’s patron saint.

“I love that our school is the first school named after St. Carlo,” seventh grader Liam Tutaj said.

“I think that Carlo Acutis is a good role model,” fourth grader Ethan Opsal said. “I learned that once when he could have bought a video game, he bought a homeless man a sleeping bag instead.”

“I feel really happy that I got to see the canonization of a saint. I didn’t think I would ever be so similar to a saint,” fifth grader Brooklyn Morales said. “For example, St. Carlo likes soccer and Nutella sandwiches, and I like them, too.”

Principal Deb Myers agreed that the schoolchildren have been fascinated and excited.

“It makes sainthood a reality for them,” Myers said, “that you don’t have to be a person that lived 200, 300, 500 years ago. You can be a 15-year-old boy who just loved Jesus.”

If the name Carlo Acutis rings a bell locally, it’s because of a traveling Vatican exhibit that came to La Salle in 2022. Then, the La Salle Catholic parishes received 160 placards describing a eucharistic miracle reported from across the globe.

Those placards were created by Acutis, who succumbed to leukemia, but not before launching a digital catalog of some of the thousands of reported miracles. His unfinished summaries were donated to the Holy See, which in turn approved reproductions for public display.