Prepare For The Great

Pootatuck Duck Race

Most Newtowners would say that there are two really festive weekends in Newtown. One is Labor Day weekend, centering as it does around the parade and the giant Friends of the Library book sale. The second major weekend is in December. It is graced with the Family Life Center open houses, the tree lighting, and the illumination of Main Street, among other things. The Newtown Lions Club and the Treadwell Park Committee are now hoping to bring a third festive weekend into being. That will be Memorial Day weekend, when the Newtown Soccer Club hosts an all-state soccer tournament. Added to the fun will be the Great Pootatuck Duck Race.

In the next seven weeks the Lions Club and the Treadwell Park Committee will be selling raffle tickets for $5 each. For each ticket sold, a plastic duck with the corresponding number will be dumped simultaneously in the Pootatuck River in Sandy Hook center. This will happen on Saturday, May 27, at 1 pm. The race will end at the walking bridge between Dayton Street and Glen Road. Twelve prizes will be given, with the grand prize being a 50-inch Toshiba Theatre View TV.

The day will encompass much more than just the duck race itself and the soccer tournaments. Between 10 am and 2 pm, there will be plenty of booths, street musicians, and face painters roaming through the crowds, as well as good food to eat. If anyone would like to set up a booth, he or she should call Jerry Cole at 426-4529. If someone would like to put an ad in the program that will be published he or she should call Jim Larin at 426-8971. Anyone willing to sell tickets for this playground fundraiser or who wishes to buy ducks please call Tammy Marks, Treadwell Park co-chair, at 426-5333.

According to Jim Larin, Lions chairman of the Great Pootatuck Duck Race, “This should be a neat event. I hope Newtowners will come out and make this a real Newtown day! It has the potential in years to come of rivaling the Family Life Center and Labor Day weekends.”