Shafeek-Nader Trust book sale benefits WHCF

WINSTED — A book sale to benefit the Winsted Health Center Foundation (WHCF) was held on Thursday, Dec. 18, at Law Works, a retail space at 414 Main St. leased by the Nader family.

The sale was sponsored by the Shafeek-Nader Trust and is one in a series of fundraisers designed to recognize and support local nonprofit organizations.

For sale were books about first amendment issues, health, safety and computers.

Claire Nader, president of the Shafeek Nader Trust, said residents sometimes do not recognize the work of local organizations and volunteers.

“It’s hard to run those small groups, mostly on tiny budgets, and they do not get recognized,” Nader said. “They do such a good job that you take them for granted. It’s time to say thank you. This book sale is to help recognize the efforts the WHCF is making, to keep the facility going and to do the renovations that are necessary. We need the community to support it and its partners, the people who have space there.”

Nader said the community should welcome new services, such as the Hartford Hospital Medical Center, but also to pay attention and support what it already has locally.

“We welcome more services, but if they’re going to be in competition with the WHC, then the community has to pay attention and support what it has locally,” Nader said. “A self-respecting community focuses on being as self-reliant as possible. There’s nothing more important than having healthcare near where you live. Because it’s there, you get service immediately when you need it. You also get to know the people in your community who are up there working. That’s important. We’re not numbers, we’re individuals with families.”

Community Lawyer Charlene LaVoie said people in town should be concerned about a medical center coming in on Main Street because it hasn’t made its intentions clear as to whether or not it will be more than just a medical office building.

“If they put an urgent-care center in there, it will undermine the emergency room at Charlotte Hungerford’s emergency care center in Winsted,” LaVoie said. “If the Winsted Health Center shuts down, we won’t have an ER. An urgent care center can’t do what an emergency room does. There will be no life-star helicopter, no emergency life saving apparatus and techniques. The big concern is that Hartford Hospital hasn’t told us what their plans are. Right now people are welcoming it because we can always use more doctors, but they may also be putting in something that’s going to compete directly with and undercut the ER. That’s not good for the community.”

LaVoie said the book sale was held to make people more aware of the value of the WHCF and to support it.

“It’s a civic organization that deserves community support because if we lose it, then we’re at the mercy of an outside corporation and whatever they want to do,” she said. “It’s really an issue of having some control over our own access to healthcare. That’s what we’ve done for the last 16 years with the WHCF. Some of us in town would like to see that continue.”