Nonotuck Resource Associates, Inc. was proud to recently raise more than $300 for our Gift Giving Fund in honor of two beloved community members during Lee’s Founders Weekend. Held from September 15 to 17 2023, Founders Weekend is a celebration of town spirit featuring local food, music, a duck race, an antique fire truck show, and more.
It was an appropriate way to honor two pillars of the Lee (and Nonotuck) Community, Kitty Kelly-Curtin, and Daniel “Danny” MacDonald. Kitty was a resident of Lee all her life and loved the town with all her heart. Kitty came to work for Nonotuck as a part-time R.N. and eventually became the Vice President of Operations after trailblazing a path into our Adult Family Care (AFC) program and growing the program over time to assist over 800 families throughout the State.
Kitty was a Shared Living Provider for Danny for 26 amazing years. They met while Kitty was employed as a Registered Nurse at Dan’s state-operated residential program in Stockbridge, after he spent 50 years housed at Belchertown State School. Their bond soon blossomed, and they decided to pursue a different model through Nonotuck called Shared Living. After much planning, Danny moved in with Kitty and her two young sons, and none of them ever looked back.
Danny loved to “people watch” and was a local celebrity in Lee, known for sitting outside of her shop and walking through the streets. Everyone knew his name and he was welcomed into his community with open arms by all who met him. Kitty and Danny were the very best of friends. Their devotion and admiration for each other was wholehearted; they were inseparable. Their relationship was one based on a mutuality of love and respect.
“Nonotuck owes a great debt to Kitty. She was a pillar of our great agency. Her strength of values, intellect, compassion, and love for her work and the people she served gave much to the foundational being of Nonotuck,” says Nonotuck CEO/President George H. Fleischner. “She is dearly missed by me, her family, her co-workers, the people she supported and the Lee townspeople. Danny, a friend of mine, lived his life to the fullest with Kitty. Together they represented the best in shared living. That is: A life not based on service but based on mutual respect, interdependence and a beautiful mutuality of love.”
Nonotuck raised money by giving away the remainder of IMod (In Memory of Danny) Kitty’s consignment shop stock, in exchange for a suggested donation. In total, $344 was raised.
Find out more about our Gift Giving Fund
Learn how Nonotuck developed a love-based ideology of care. We started our shared living program as an alternative to group homes for people with disabilities. Instead, Shared Living creates genuine life transformation for people with disabilities, as well as families and communities. The true power of caregiving is found through hospitality, authenticity, and love.
