The Touching Reason Why Seniors Donated Their Class Gift to Their Principal

— -- A New Hampshire principal battling a rare cancer was brought to tears when her senior class unanimously decided to give up their senior class trip and donate nearly $8,000 to her medical care.

Courtney Vashaw, principal of the Profile school for both junior and high school students in Bethlehem, New Hampshire, was diagnosed with a rare cancer of the soft tissue earlier this month. The senior class at the school surprised Vashaw on Tuesday with the news that they would donate the funds for their senior class trip for her treatment.

"She's just very caring, very selfless, and we wanted to be selfless, too," Ian Baker, a senior at the school told ABC affiliate WMUR-TV.

Vashaw said she had "no idea" her seniors were planning on surprising her. They tricked her to coming by telling her it was for a senior meeting, she said. Once she arrived, the entire senior class announced that they had unanimously voted to donate their funds to Vashaw.

"I feel like this has been a beautiful experience as an educator," she told ABC News. "You work so hard to try and help cultivate not only academically astute young people but kids who care. I am just so impressed and so proud of these kids for being the embodiment of that."

After seven years at the school, Vashaw said this is just the second group of students she has seen go from middle schoolers to high school graduates. In a few weeks, she is scheduled to go to New York to get specialized treatment for her rare and aggressive form of cancer, but before that she will celebrate as her students pick up their diplomas.

"If I even make it through the graduation without being a teary, soggy mess, it’s going to be a miracle," she told ABC News.