Rooster Rally Will Return

 To Main Street This Weekend

Newtown’s celebration of its most famous symbol and mascot will be held from 11:30 am to 2 pm Saturday, June 13, along the stretch of Main Street (Route 25) in front of Edmond Town Hall. A number of organizations will participate with booths and displays about the rooster or some other form of local history.

Additional events were still being added this week, but Rooster Rally coordinator Mae Schmidle confirmed that the following are already planning on welcoming famed local artist David Merrill, who will set up an easel and paint in front of The Budd House; photos with Beau, the ten-foot-tall rooster sculpture who calls the Parks & Recreation office at Town Hall South home; the presentation of a collection of glass and ceramic roosters hosted by VNA-Newtown; a children’s painting area hosted by Children’s Adventure Center where children will be invited to paint their own roosters; and dance performances by Rocking Roosters Square Dance Club.

Also participating on Saturday will be Newtown Parent Connection, with a show and sale of rooster items; Carol Lockwood, who is coordinating an exhibit of rooster items by ladies of the VFW; artists Alice Falkowitz (painting or sculpting a rooster) and Ruth Newquist (also painting); Newtown and High Middle School student artists, who will also be painting roosters; HG Lifestyle, with a display of weathervanes; and Mae Schmidle, among others, who will have historic notes, maps, and collections on view.

Newtown’s Democratic Town Committee will host the day’s canteen, and Sal e Pepe restaurant will have a display and giveaways.

Additional exhibitors will include Shaolin Studios, Lexington Gardens, Hawleyville Post Office Committee, Newtown Parks & Recreation, Winterset Ski Club, Newtown Health Department, and SuzySaid.com.

In 1956, for the 250th anniversary celebration of Newtown’s founding, artist Bob Halleck drew a rooster patterned after the weathervane atop Newtown Congregational Church (now Newtown Meeting House), which became the central visual for the official Town of Newtown corporate seal. That drawing will be on view during the Rooster Rally.

The first Rooster Rally event was held four years ago, in 2005, on the occasion of Newtown’s Tercentennial. Approximately 3,000 residents celebrated the town mascot that day, perusing exhibits and visiting with vendors who had set up tables and booths along the upper stretch of Main Street.

Newtown’s Children’s Adventure Center has also been conducting a children’s art contest as part of the 2009 Rooster Rally. The winning entry, along with several of the runners up, will be on display Saturday.

The Rooster Rally is being held in conjunction with Connecticut Open House Day, a statewide celebration of old homes and other local history throughout the state as sponsored by the Connecticut Commission on Arts and Historic Preservation.

Newtown Historical Society will also be participating in Connecticut Open House Day by opening its Main Street headquarters for tours as well as a used book sale. Additionally, Town Historian Dan Cruson will lead a walking tour of the business district of Sandy Hook. Participants should meet at Washington Park, at the corner of Washington Avenue and Church Hill Road, by 1 pm.

The tour will take a little less than an hour, and will involve short walks up and down some gentle hills to see the village’s historical and essential features.

Participation in the tour is also free, and all walkers are invited back to the Curtiss House on Main Street for refreshments afterward.

Contact Newtown Historical Society for further details and information, at 426-5937.