Text by Leila Javitch
Photo Courtesy of Dawn Whalen

Dawn Whalen became the first executive director of the Norfolk Foundation (NF) in November 2016, arriving after three years as executive director of Habitat for Humanity for Northwest Connecticut. Mark Burke, a Norfolk resident and former member of the Habitat board, urged her to apply to head up the newly created NF. Excellent organizational skills, attention to detail and a fervent commitment to community building made Whalen a perfect fit for the key role of fashioning the unique foundation its members envisioned.

The NF was started by a few individuals who had invested much time and energy in helping Glenn Chalder, the town planner, and the Norfolk Planning and Zoning Commission to improve the Norfolk Town Plan. Vint Lawrence, Pete Anderson and Libby Borden began meeting regularly on Borden’s front porch. Stephen Melville soon joined them. As the town plan was completed, they focused on creating a foundation which would work to secure a sustainable future for Norfolk while maintaining the town’s natural and cultural resources. When Whalen started with NF in the fall of 2016, there was significant financial support, but no programs or procedures in place.

Her task was to create an organization that would foster collaboration among existing community groups, encourage new ideas and initiatives for Norfolk and somehow fashion a space where local residents would feel welcome.

The latter effort became the Norfolk Hub, and creating it was a complex task. The building was just an empty space in the village center in 2016. But the founding NF members envisioned a community center, facilities for Norfolk volunteer groups, co-working space, and much more to draw Norfolk together.

During the Hub’s renovation, Whalen served as the liaison between contractors, the architect and the foundation board. And she watched how visitors used the space to determine what the Hub should offer.

The Hub is now open about 40 hours a week for community use; organizations have before/after hours use for extended access. There are art exhibitions and evening Hub Talks, held virtually and in-person. Whalen especially recalls the series of three programs, managed by Hub Manager Jen Pfaltz, focused on Ukraine that took place in spring 2022. In April, journalist Anne Garrels spoke and raised funds for the NGO Assist Ukraine. Tom Hlas organized a very successful art exhibition and fundraising auction a month later, and Ian Miller and Evan Platt (both sons of Norfolk residents) spoke about the technical and drone-based assistance their organization, Zero Line, was making available to the Ukrainian front lines.

During Whalen’s tenure, the Norfolk Foundation has financially supported or managed many community efforts. These include the planning and landscaping of City Meadow, Yale’s Summer Arts Program public lectures, Weekend in Norfolk and Norfolk NET. A major recent undertaking was the foundation’s purchase of the Royal Arcanum Building in downtown Norfolk, involving a collaboration with the Foundation for Norfolk Living to manage the building’s five affordable housing units.

Another product of the NF’s cultural mission is the Haystack Book Festival, now in its fifth year. The festival is a full weekend of unmoderated conversations between pairs of authors. A group of avid readers from Norfolk choose the books and authors, but Whalen managed much of the weekend, as well as the fundraising to support it. “Dawn kept track of all the details, kept the trains moving and made sure that all of our authors were at the right place at the right time. We will miss her smiling face greeting all of our audiences,” said Michael Selleck, Haystack Book Festival co-chair. Describing her role as “outreach working” and promoting a “successful collaboration in which volunteers took on the roles they were really good at” gets to the heart of what Whalen believes in and the kind of work she loves to do.

Besides fostering an environment in which relationships can grow and produce results that benefit the community, Whalen likes the challenge of starting from scratch. Her two new endeavors perfectly fill that bill. She recently started as interim executive director for A Promise to Jordan, a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness of and reducing the stigma associated with substance abuse disorders. Whalen runs the organization’s programs and helps with fundraising and board development while assisting with the search for a permanent executive director. 

Her second job maintains Whalen’s ties to Norfolk. She has joined the Litchfield County Center for Housing Opportunity as a capacity-building consultant. She will work for the next several months alongside its director to help affordable housing organizations in Litchfield County create tools and materials to increase their capacity and community engagement.

Luckily, the group works closely with the Foundation for Norfolk Living, Norfolk’s volunteer housing group, so it is likely that her work will soon bring Whalen back to Norfolk. She will pull up a seat in the Hub, bringing her deep interest in people, her enthusiasm for all things relating to Norfolk and that inviting smile back to the wonderful resource she helped create for the town.