DAWS has eyes toward future as it breaks ground on new facility
BETHEL — After years of planning and fundraising, the Danbury Animal Welfare Society on Grassy Plain Street finally broke ground on its long-awaited renovation project.
“To say that this renovation has been a journey would be understated,” said DAWS president Scott Fay, who remembers seeing blueprints for it when he joined the organization as a volunteer in 2015. “The thing about journeys is that sooner or later, they have an end — but ours is finally in sight.”
A ground-breaking ceremony was held Tuesday to celebrate the commencement of construction at the site DAWS has called home for almost 30 years.
The non-profit, which originated in Danbury more than 40 years ago, not only provides shelter and care to dogs and cats, but offers spay and neutering services, adoption counseling and education programs.
The organization’s development and marketing director, Alice Meenan, said the idea to renovate the shelter and provide a state-of-the-art facility has been in the works for “many, many years.”
“As with all projects, there were some bumps in the road,” she said, “and then when COVID happened, we had to put the brakes on the project for a little bit because we wanted to ensure that we could raise the capital needed to complete the project.”
After relaunching fundraising efforts last year, DAWS managed to secure enough money to not only break ground, but do the project in one phase instead of two.
“We will completely knock the kennel down to the ground and do a full gutting of the front of the shelter all in one shot,” Meenan said.
Tearing down and rebuilding the kennels is just one part of the project, which is estimated to take over a year to complete. There will also be transformation and repurposing of the rest of the building space — which includes its clinic, cattery, office and greeting spaces, and community and education rooms.
A gift from one anonymous donor played a large part in not only speeding up the project timeline, but the extent of the renovations.
“That helped us get closer to the finish line,” said Meenan.
With the amount of the donation and identity of the donor being kept confidential, she would only say it was a “substantial” contribution.
Meenan said donations over the last year not only made DAWS comfortable with finally breaking ground, but have allowed the organization to reimagine some of its renovation plans.
“Some modifications include changes to the clinic and also a greater focus on community education,” she said. “We want DAWS to be a place that offers so much more than adoption, which is what many people think we only do.”
Thanks to the generosity of Union Savings Bank, Meenan said, the new DAWS building will have a designated room for children’s education called A Place for Children.
Even with the donations that have come in, DAWS still needs financial support — not just for the renovation project, but to support the organization’s ongoing work to help animals.
“We’ve raised enough funds to be in a good position to officially break ground on the project, but support will always be needed,” Meenan said. “We’ll always need to grow our endowment and, like all nonprofits, we’re always going to need money.”
Even though inflation makes now “the worst time” to do a renovation project, Meenan said the shelter is in too dire of a state to put the work off any longer.
“To keep the building open, especially on the kennel side, was not efficient anymore. It drains us,” she said. “It does not have ample heating or cooling, and it’s just not a good place anymore for the animals and for the staff.”
With construction soon commencing, Meenan said all DAWS animals have been placed in either foster homes or a temporary location in Newtown.
Although it’s relying on fosters and the temporary location to house animals, she said DAWS will continue offering rescue, adoption and low-cost clinic services while its facility undergoes 15 months of renovation work.
DAWS president Scott Fay said the project has been a long time coming.
we will have a new facility that is on par with the level of passion and commitment that each of us share, and it’s phenomenally exciting to think about the impact we can have on rescue work — not only locally, but across the state; across the region and across the country.”
As president of the organization’s board of directors, Fay said it’s his responsibility to make sure every dollar donated to the renovation goes to saving the lives of animals.
“I’ve looked at hundreds of numbers throughout the renovation process — but in the end, the only number that matters is the number of animals’ lives that we’re going to be able to save with this new facility,” he said. “It’s phenomenally exciting to think about the impact we can have on rescue work — not only locally, but across the state; across the region and across the country.”
The new DAWS facility is expected to open in the summer of 2023.