Catherine Hubbard’s Legacy of Kindness Begins To Take Shape

In the small town of Newtown, Connecticut, lived a six-year-old girl named Catherine Violet Hubbard. She had flaming red hair, a smattering of freckles, and a smile that glowed like gentle sunshine. But most significantly, she had the sweetest, most tender of hearts, filled with a love for animals. She dreamed of caring for them—all of them.

Then disaster struck on December 14, 2012. She and 19 other children at her school, Sandy Hook Elementary, were killed in cold blood, as were six adults. It was a tragedy that shook the entire nation.

In the midst of their grief, Catherine’s parents, Jenny and Matt, decided to honor their little daughter. What would she want?

The answer was pretty obvious: help and care for animals. So it was soon decided. They were going to build a sanctuary.

Thus the Catherine Violet Hubbard Foundation was born. It would create a sanctuary with three parts: cat and dog adoption, farm animal housing, and wildlife rehabilitation and release.

Obviously, a project this big needs a lot of help to become a reality. So Rescue Rebuild, a Greatergood.org signature program that repairs and rebuilds shelters, is working with them to help fulfill the second goal by creating Catherine’s Rescue Barn.

This barn is inspired by Charlotte’s Web, a book Catherine and her mother once read together. Catherine loved the community that existed among the farm animals, so the Rescue Barn plans to replicate that.

It will take in displaced farm animals and give them a new forever home—a place where they can live in community and peace. It’s also pretty needed, as hundreds of farm animals will likely be homeless within the next 20 years due to Connecticut farmers retiring.

This Rescue Barn isn’t some distant plan in the future, either. It’s HAPPENING, folks; starting on Monday, May 16, Rescue Rebuild will start renovating an existing barn to turn it into a farm animal paradise. If Catherine were here right now, I bet she’d be squealing with glee!

And you know who we have to thank for that? YOU. You—along with Catherine’s Cup of Kindness and generous donors across the nation—have made this a possibility. Thanks to your generosity, the Catherine Violet Hubbard Foundation can fund the materials needed to make one little angel’s kind and selfless dream come true.

Thank you! From the bottoms of our hearts, THANK YOU!