Duck Race Festival Set For Saturday

The Great Pootatuck Duck Race, sponsored by the Newtown Lions Club, will take place once again on Memorial Day weekend in Sandy Hook.

More than 25 local organizations have signed up to participate in the all-day festival on Saturday, May 29, from 10 am to 3 pm, in Sandy Hook Center. The family oriented day will include music, face painters, magicians, a moonwalk, and other activities including a silent auction on a duck story quilt made by Peg Forbell.

Harmony on the Sound Chorus, a group formerly known as YankeeMaid of Sweet Adelines International, will sing around noon.

Mike Porco’s Newtown Karate Academy will give demonstrations and Jennifer Johnston’s ballet center will be open for the public to see the dance classes. 

Hundreds of rubber ducks will be dropped into the Pootatuck River from the bridge spanning Church Hill Road at 2 pm. The first 25 ducks to cross the finish line will win prizes for those who “adopted” them for the day, ranging in value from a Cub Cadet Model 2148 garden tractor to ten tickets to the Edmond Town Hall movies.

Prizes include a Theater Night in New York City, gift certificates to restaurants, salons, and other businesses, Paul Landry prints, and a CD system.

Duck Race tickets are $5 each. They are being sold by Lions Club members and at various locations around town including Drug Center, C.H. Booth Library, World of Wine and Spirits of Newtown, Village Barber Shop, Sandy Hook Deli, The Little Green Barn, and The Gym at Newtown. Proceeds will go toward the Lions Tercentennial project, replacement of the lower level theater seats in Edmond Town Hall, and repair of the upper level seats.

The silent auction for the quilt will benefit Jordan Cicchesi, 5, a Newtown child who has a rare brain tumor that will require surgery next month at a hospital in Phoenix, Ariz.

Among the groups that have signed up to participate: the Tercentennial Committee, Spay & Neuter Association, FISH, Meals on Wheels, the Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company, the Newtown Historical Society, Friends of Music, Newtown Youth Services, Newtown Ambulance, Democratic Town Committee, Republican Town Committee, Visting Nurse Association, Girl Scouts, Friends of the C.H. Booth Library, Al’s Trail, the United Methodist Church, and The Homesteads at Newtown.