Sandy Hook charity doubles outreach to help seniors care for their pets
NEWTOWN — A nonprofit founded to honor a slain Sandy Hook girl who loved animals has doubled its outreach to homes of seniors in Fairfield and Litchfield counties who need support to care for their pets.
“Oftentimes, because of a financial hardship that wasn’t anticipated, older adults find themselves making choices between caring for themselves or their pets … a decision that often comes with a struggle where they provide for their pets over themselves,” says Jennifer Hubbard, who started the Catherine Violet Hubbard Foundation in memory of her daughter. “The Senior Paws Project believes if there is a need to provide standard veterinary care or food or at times temporary shelter, it is our obligation to honor the beautiful bond that a lot of older adults have with their pets.”
The Senior Paws Project Hubbard refers to has become one of the marquee programs for the nonprofit, growing from a constituency of 11 towns at the end of last year to 24 towns today, ranging from Greenwich to Torrington.
The reason: the foundation has teamed up with two mobile veterinary care providers who provide wellness care for pets in the seniors’ homes.
“Because our new mobile partners cover all of Connecticut it has allowed us to expand our services to additional communities, said Chris Barrett, Senior Paw Project manager. “We work with housing authorities and low-income elderly housing providers to identify those in need, and bring veterinary well care to the homes of elder adults.”
The expanding Senior Paws Project is part of a larger vision to build a $10 million animal sanctuary and education center at a 34-acre field owned by the nonprofit. While fundraising and site work has progressed, the nonprofit has offered its animal stewardship programs in schools and at the property.
“The site is stunning — it is magnificent — and our mission at the sanctuary is to honor the human-animal bond because we promote compassion and acceptance. We don’t a need building to do that,” Hubbard said during an interview on Thursday. “Making sure animals know in their homes...that they are safe and they are protected — that is what Catherine would have wanted.”
Buildings at the sanctuary site will enable the foundation to house rescue animals once a livein caretaker is hired, and will allow schools and other groups to book field trips.
The goal is to construct a main building with multi-functional space for programs starting in 2023, and to follow with construction of a veterinary intake facility, animal caretaker housing, and renovations to Catherine’s Rescue Barn.
“Four schools have reached out to us to do field trips and we have had to turn them away because we don’t have the infrastructure,” Hubbard said. “We are excited about having a roof over our head… it will allow us to take our current programming and double it.”
The expansion of the Senior Paws Project comes at a time in Hubbard’s life when her son is preparing to graduate high school. Her son was in third grade when her daughter died with 19 classmates and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.
“It’s been a blink and it’s also been a haul,” said Hubbard, whose book, “Finding Sanctuary: How the Wild Work of Peace Restored the Heart of a Sandy Hook Mother,” was published last year by Ave Maria Press. “My mind is focused on this exciting time for him and for the sanctuary.”