Saturday would have been Catherine Hubbard’s 18th birthday.
There is a vibrant birthday celebration on what would have been the 18th birthday of Catherine Violet Hubbard. After she died at age six in the Sandy Hook school shooting, her family created Catherine’s Butterfly Party to celebrate her life.
At the festival Saturday, a sea of purple and butterfly motifs everywhere represent everything that Catherine loved.
“When she would collect butterflies in the summer, and she would care for them throughout the day, she'd send them off at the end of the day, and she did so with a beautiful little request of telling their friends that she was kind,” Jenny Hubbard, Catherine’s mom, said. “She in her mind, she really felt like they would come back to her in droves. And so there's tons of butterflies around here, because she just she loved them all.”
Catherine’s favorite creature inspired her to throw a purple butterfly birthday party when she was three.
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“They literally were backyard birthday parties,” Hubbard said. “I would do the invitations, and they were all hand done, and then the games!
Now 12,000 people are celebrating on what would have been Catherine’s 18th birthday.
“She'd be graduating high school this week and starting on a new chapter of her life,” Hubbard said.
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At the colorful celebration, there is a special honor. This June 8, the North American Butterfly Association is symbolically re-naming the monarch butterfly. On Catherine’s birthday, it is the ‘Catherine butterfly.’
“We were thrilled and so grateful,” Hubbard said. “It's such a poignant reminder of all that we have done and all that we continue to do in Catherine's memory.”
Down to the tiniest creature, Catherine loved all animals, evident in her visits to them, her artwork; the six-year-old even launched her own business and created business cards calling herself a “pet caretaker.”
It is why her family opened the Catherine Violet Hubbard Animal Sanctuary, a 34-acre farmland safe haven in Newtown. The sanctuary has found 800 animals permanent homes, provided free veterinary care and pet food to 450 financially insecure pet owners, and educated 150,000 people.
“I think that when a person learns to care for an animal, they are transformed some way,” Hubbard said.
Catherine’s passion for animals is also why each year, dozens of animal rescue organizations bring adoptable pets to her Butterfly Party. Last year, 158 animals were adopted, and another 250 are up for adoption at this year’s celebration.
“I think she would be delighted,” Hubbard said.
On this milestone day, Catherine’s Butterfly Party echoes her childhood birthdays, and butterflies soar carrying her name.
“I've found myself often thinking like, what would she be doing now?” Hubbard said. “But more than not, just being really grateful for the time that I did have with her, and thinking about all of the birthday celebrations that that we spent together.”
For the little red head with a huge heart, a community comes together to spread a message of kindness for all living things.
Governor Ned Lamont sent a proclamation, which is on display at Catherine’s Butterfly Party. It acknowledges all the work that the Catherine Violet Hubbard Animal Sanctuary is doing in animal care and in encouraging people to be empathetic.
You can learn more about the animal sanctuary and its work at cvhfoundation.org.
