A donation pile is growing after a hospitality center that serves Waterbury’s homeless was damaged in a fire Friday.
“We were just watching like history just being destroyed,” Chris Bachard with the Hospitality Center said.
It’s an image burned in Chris Bacahrd’s mind, the Hospitality Center in Waterbury destroyed by fire Friday but there is a new memory being etched.
“There’s just no words you can say,” Bachard said.
The center, run by the center is run by the Center for Human Development, helps people in need by providing them a place to shower, wash their clothes and use computers.
The building went up in flames Friday, but there is a new memory being etched, and it’s turning a negative situation into a positive one.
“It’s like a Christmas miracle constantly for the past five to six days,” Bachard said.
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Since Saturday, the center has seen their donations quadruple, collecting a year’s worth of clothes, toiletries and household items in a matter of days. They have taken over four rooms and hallways of the parent company’s office.
“People have a lot of negativity to say about Waterbury but now in a time of crisis everybody just came together,” Bachard said.
It’s a city that Bachard says sometimes doesn’t garner the good headlines but in this case its brought out the brass city’s best.
“Maybe Waterbury is still a helping community, they didn’t forget about us,” Jacqueline Gargonia said.
For Gargonia, a volunteer and client of the Hospitality Center, each donation is a reminder that there is hope when the smokes clears.
“Maybe society isn’t as bad as people think,” Gargonia said.
The center is hoping to get back up and running in the coming weeks at a new building.
