To the Editor:

The Newtown Lions Club is excited to announce that its ever-popular annual Great Pootatuck Duck Race and town festival will be held on Saturday, June 3, 2023, in Sandy Hook Center in the park behind the Foundry.

The hometown, family-friendly event will feature a day of free children’s activities (bounce house, eighteen’ slide, games, and prizes), live entertainment, exhibitors, and of course the duck race raffle with twenty prize packages for lucky winners (totaling $4,000), all on the beautiful banks of the Pootatuck River in Sandy Hook Center.

The fun will begin at 11 am and the finale will be at 2:30 pm when thousands of numbered rubber ducks will “dive” off the Church Hill Road bridge into the Pootatuck River. Prizes will be awarded to those holding tickets corresponding with the numbers of the first twenty ducks to reach the finish line. Should weather interfere, the race will be conducted on another date without the surrounding festival.

Duck Race tickets are still just $5 per rubber duck and are now available at area businesses and via the Newtown Lions Club website: www.newtownlions.org. For weekly sales locations, check the Newtown Lions Facebook and Instagram page. Exhibitor and vendor spaces are available to nonprofits for $10 and businesses for $100. Contact Gordon Williams via e-mail at gmwllw@charter.net.

The Club is grateful to Newtown residents and businesses who have supported the Duck Race now for over 21 years, raising over $220,000 for local charities. This year, we recognize and appreciate the following area businesses for donating prizes:

Berkshire Motors, Big Y, Blue Colony Diner, Butcher’s Best, Cover Two Grill, Cork-N-Barrel Liquor Store, Edmond Town Hall Theatre, Farmhouse Restaurant, Gino’s Pizza Parlor of Sandy Hook, Marketplace Restaurant, My Place Restaurant, Nassar’s Hair Salon, Newtown Dry Cleaners, Peach Blossom Boutique, Pizza Palace, Porco Karate Academy, Sabrina Style, Sal e Pepe’s Restaurant, Sugo Restaurant (formerly Figs), Superior Cleaners, The Little Theater, The Villa Restaurant, Toy Tree.

You can buy tickets this year at the following local businesses.

Bagel Delight, Berkshire Motors, Blue Colony Diner, Booth Library, Butcher’s Best, Carminuccio’s Pizza & Subs, Cork-n-Barrel Liquor Store, Earth Day Event, Franco’s Pizza, General Store, Gino’s Pizza Parlor of Sandy Hook, Hawleyville Liquor Store, Joanne Fitness Studio, Lions Bleecker Street, My Place Restaurant, Newtown Community Center, Newtown Deli & Catering, Newtown Hardware Store, Nicks Chilled & Distilled-Sandy Hook, Patty’s Pantry, Pizza Palace, PJs Laundromat-Sandy Hook, Queen Street Cleaners, Sabrina Style, Sandy Hook Café, Sandy Hook Diner, Toy Tree, WHIP Salon-Sandy Hook and Yankee Wine & Spirits.

Businesses and others interested in helping in this way are always welcome and can contact me.

Stay tuned for more information in the Newtown Bee. The Lions are looking forward to seeing the whole town by the Pootatuck on June 3rd!

Bob Schmidt

Newtown Lions Club Duck Race Chair