(Courtesy photo) The historic former Sacred Heart School building, in a photo taken before construction got underway in earnest, is being transformed by the Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter into an emergency and temporary residential facility that will greatly expand the agency's current spaces. Its fundraising campaign just reached its fundraising goal.

NASHUA — For agencies engaged in capital campaigns and other fundraising initiatives to add more services or build or expand their facilities, reaching a fundraising goal on time is something worth celebrating.

But thanks to what its executive director calls a “just so generous” Nashua, the Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter is able to conclude some three months early its “Spring Street Forward” capital campaign, launched early in the construction and renovation phase of its new emergency shelter at 35 Spring St.

“It was a combination of public support, significant grants and $3 million from individuals and local businesses and corporations” that allowed the campaign to reach its $8.5 million goal ahead of schedule, said NSKS executive director Michael Reinke.

With work progressing pretty much on schedule, “we’re still looking at completion by mid- to late-October,” Reinke said, adding that the goal is to “get people into the building by November,” he said of the new facility’s future clients.

The historic brick structure dates back to 1892, when it opened as the Sacred Heart School, a K-8 parochial school affiliated with St. Patrick’s Church, its next-door neighbor.

A full story, including more details on the campaign, the facility itself, and some more history of the former school, will appear in The Sunday Telegraph.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.