Catherine Hubbard loved to spend much of her free time – which was no small thing, since we’re talking about a little girl – in the company of her pets and the little animals that she happened to meet in the garden of the family home in Newtown, Connecticut, in the United States United.
At five years old, Catherine had already made up her mind: when she grew up she would work in an animal sanctuary.
Sadly, this wonderful life project was cut short on December 14, 2012. That day, a 20-year-old boy entered Sandy Hook Elementary School with a firearm and made a killing, killing six adults and twenty children, including precisely Catherine, who was six and a half years old at the time. It was the fourth deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
When her daughter was killed, mother Jennifer immediately thought about how to honor her memory. She spontaneously gave up Catherine’s love of animals and asked—in lieu of flowers—for funds to be donated to the Newtown Animal Control Center.
In those terrible hours, however, Jennifer forgot to insert the word “control” in the obituary and this meant that the money raised (about one hundred thousand dollars in less than a month) ended up at the Animal Center of the city, an organization not profit run by some ladies. They proposed that Jennifer use the money to create an animal sanctuary named after Catherine.
The Catherine Violet Hubbard Animal Sanctuary was inaugurated just this week, on the tenth anniversary of the massacre. Since 2014, however, the Catherine Hubbard Foundation has been operational, particularly appreciated for the activities it organizes for the benefit of the youngest and the elderly of Newtown. Giving to the foundation has never stopped, and the sanctuary – built on land donated by the State of Connecticut to the foundation – has big plans for the future, including opening a veterinary clinic.
“Catherine loved all animals and hoped they understood that they were safe with her”, tells the mom. “My hope is that this shrine will inspire a movement of compassion and acceptance of others, that it will lead to recognition of each other’s humanity and contribute to the creation of a kinder world.”
Ten years after the Sandy Hook massacre, little Catherine’s memory is honored in the best possible way.
