Hub should help Norfolk thrive

NORFOLK — The revitalization of Norfolk’s Town Center through acquisition and redevelopment — and the creation of a collaborative, co-working office and community Hub — has earned the Norfolk Foundation a 2019 Award of Excellence from the Connecticut Main Street Center (CMSC), the state’s leading downtown resource.

The foundation was the only organization from Litchfield County to be selected for the honor this year. In addition to Norfolk, honorees hail from eight other communities: Canton, Hartford, Hebron, Meriden, Newtown, Putnam, Waterbury and Westville Village in New Haven. 

The winners represent the “creativity, perseverance and innovation needed to cultivate great downtowns,” according to CMSC. 

They were celebrated on Monday, June 3, at an awards ceremony in downtown Willimantic.

Cited by CMSC as Norfolk Hub accomplishments were a diversity of different types of projects, from hiking trails and natural attractions to “the artistic and cultural resources represented by the library and the Yale Summer program in music and art.” 

The organization said that eventually, these offerings could “establish Norfolk as a major center for literature and the arts in New England and nationally.”

Dawn Whalen, the Norfolk Foundation’s executive director, said being recognized “so early on in our journey for a Main Street Award is quite humbling.”

Whalen, who accepted the award on behalf of the Foundation, noted that every community represented as an award winner, “whether small like Norfolk and Hebron or large like New Haven and Waterbury, recognizes that if their communities are to remain sustainable there must be public/private partnerships established to help Connecticut thrive. 

“It showed that whatever impact your company, business or nonprofit is trying to achieve, you will need assistance — like funds and volunteers — beyond local, state or federal government.”

Jocelyn Ayer from the Northwest Hills Council of Governments (an organization made up of first selectmen from 21 Litchfield County towns) nominated the foundation for the award. 

The Norfolk Foundation is a private operating foundation. It focuses on improving connections between the town’s major institutions and trail networks; making efforts to establish the town as a regional center for  arts and culture; linking up the many nonprofit groups in Norfolk.

Among its major accomplishments are the acquisition and refitting of two vacant buildings in the town center. 

One, known as 6 Station Place, was a hardware store and is now home to the Berkshire Country Store. At 2 Station Place, which was formerly the Corner Store, the Norfolk Hub has its office. It shares the space with the Norfolk Foundation and Norfolk Hair Station. 

The foundation has also been a key supporter of the City Meadow project, and major provider of modest grants to numerous town organizations.