United Way relocates offices to former school

    SHELTON - Valley United Way is now open for business in its new location at 54 Grove St., the old Lafayette School.
     The move was completed last week after two months of hard work and "sweat equity,” according to a press release Thursday from the organization.
    Valley United Way joins Center Stage Theatre as a tenant in a creative adaptive re-use of the former elementary school as a new community nonprofit center made possible by the City of Shelton.
    Fred Ortoli, Chairman of the United Way Board of Directors said that the project was a tribute to cooperation among the government, nonprofit and business communities to make the project a success. He thanked Mayor Mark Lauretti and the Board of Aldermen for making the effort viable by providing United Way with an affordable lease that also helps to ensure the success of the building, parts of which have served the City of Shelton since 1911.
      Jack Walsh, President & C.O.O. at United Way said in the release the project was made financially feasible by grants, in-kind donations and the tireless efforts by volunteers who did most of the work on the project. He said that the new facility could not have been completed if not for grants from the Katharine Matthies Foundation, the Raymond P. Lavietes Foundation, the Pitney Bowes Foundation, the Valley Community Foundation, United Illuminating and Better Packages. 

    Walsh said, "It was Mike Marcinek and his wonderful employees at Fletcher Thompson who really put the whole project together by taking a vision and making it a reality. They did all the design work on the project, and then volunteered to do most of the work. They were here nights, holidays and weekends since December 1, moving the project to completion."
    He said hey had also secured donations of the carpeting and ceiling tiles throughout the facility. "Quite frankly, this project could not have happened without Mike and his team at FletcherThompson," said Walsh.
  
     The office furniture for the new facility was donated by HealthNet with the assistance of Debbie Lewis, Manager of Facilities Services, who coordinated all of the logistics. 

    Students from the carpentry shop at Emmett O'Brien Technical High School were also involved in building new walls as part of the project.

    The new facility contains not only United Way's working space, but also two conference rooms which will be used by area nonprofits. The very first meeting in the new facility was a Valley Council for Health & Human Services breakfast with area legislators Jan. 24.

   A formal grand opening is being planned and will be announced soon.