Ethel and Ed Spellman, retirees working with the NVP, helped organize supermarket van service.  

"In the process of Ed and Ethel working on that they got into the elderly housing complexes in Waterbury and discovered that there was a lot of elderly people out there who were not getting good care.  Ethel Spellman, being a retired nurse, said something has to be done.  So already being involved in the NVP, she brought the idea to the Board, and they discussed it, and they decided to start a homecare committee.  I was asked to join it because at that time I was working for a homecare agency."

    - Doreen Filipiak, VCC home health aide

The result was ValleyCare Cooperative.

"To me probably one of the most important parts of it was that it was brought to the forefront by a woman who simply saw a need, she was a nurse, she had been out there in the field and knew that there were people who needed help and at the same time knew that there were women out there who needed jobs, who had no training, who were in situations where they really needed something that they could count on and something that could offer them the time they needed to work, the flexibility and eventually in time, to be part owner of the company that they worked for. And to think that it was just the thought of one person that created the company that came of it is probably the most important thing that I can think of ValleyCare.  When we think of companies we think of big dollars and CEOs and board meetings, we don't think of just a person."

"We started with one person, we created a company, we did everything that we set our minds to do and unfortunately other circumstances took it out of our hands.  That's the hardest part."

    - Doreen Filipiak