Catherine’s Learning Barn at the Catherine Violet Hubbard Animal Sanctuary is quickly taking shape and evolving a corner of the 34-acre property.

Jenny Hubbard, the director of the animal sanctuary, said, “It’s remarkable.”

On Tuesday, December 10, Hubbard hosted an official barn raising at the animal sanctuary. Despite the cold, the community rallied together to help Hubbard frame the walls, just like our ancestors from old America did. Barn raisings are ceremonious occasions that, as everyone noted in their speeches during the event, were meant to foster the relationships between community members and bring a new feeling of connectedness to all.

Hubbard said, “It’s a reminder that when you do the right thing and you surround yourself with the right people, and they share their skills and their talents and their gifts so freely … amazing things happen.”

She then added, with marked excitement, “The roof is already on! We’ve only been at this for about a month and a half, and they are just moving right along.” When Hubbard refers to “they,” she means her dedicated team from Verdi Construction and Country Carpenters.

Verdi construction is a Newtown-based construction company. The office for the company is “a stone’s throw away” from the sanctuary, and Kurt Verdi told the crowd at the raising, “I mention this to say that by the time we met with Jenny, Verdi construction already felt not only like neighbors of the sanctuary, but companions to its mission.”

Hubbard detailed that at the beginning of construction, she was “really aware and thoughtful about the site and how we were using it.” Where the barn is now was once the caretaker’s barn when the property was connected to Fairfield Hills.

The sanctuary, as Hubbard shared, is a place where a lot of people found healing and peace following 12/14. Hubbard said, “I feel like there’s these moments where everybody takes a deep breath and wonders, you know, can we celebrate in this moment, and also honor the sacredness and the solemnity of it? And yes, you can. You can do both.”

“I think we did that exceptionally well where we honored Catherine and her life and also celebrate what her life has been able to offer back to the world,” Hubbard added.

Hubbard is most excited to have a hub at the sanctuary for both the community and those who are invited to the sanctuary to learn about animals and is hopeful that all those who come will “leave a little gentler.”

“I think that translates into how we then go out into the community and treat each other and the spaces that we share with animals and the environment that we’re tasked to care for.”

The CVH Animal Sanctuary was recognized in June as “being a beacon for building human empathy. I think it comes from understanding that there is peace to be found and there is a place of healing,” Hubbard said.

She added that the sanctuary comes together through the team of dedicated individuals, professionals, and volunteers. She explained, “We had over 800 volunteers that came to the sanctuary and … helped … We have one volunteer that comes up once a week and mows the grass. It’s truly a village.”

“It’s hard to begrudge anything when I’m surrounded by so much kindness and compassion. I don’t have to look far for something to be thankful for,” Hubbard said.

Hubbard added that, as a Newtowner, she’s proud to have the sanctuary be in the town that she lives in, that she is a part of.

“The sanctuary is part of the Newtown community,” she said. “I feel like that’s a great claim to have.”

The barn is projected for completion in May 2025, and the sanctuary is still open for public use. Hubbard wants to remind visitors that the learning barn area of the property is still an active construction site, and for everyone’s safety to please not use any trails that are marked as “closed”.

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Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.