Senior Center members gathered to celebrate a late Labor Day lunch on Friday, September 6. The main focus of the lunch was not having the Super Duper Weenie Truck, featured on Guy Fieri’s Diner’s, Drive-Ins, & Dives, it was the opening for the new patio on the senior center.

The patio features a wooden pergola structure with a tin roof, two brick walkways on either side, a few metal tables and chairs, and a beautiful stone bench that wraps around the outside of the patio area. The pergola is complete with electrical wiring for lights and speakers s the parties can start in the morning and last all night.

Members of the Senior Center and employees from Public Works came out for the occasion to join Natalie Griffith, director of Human Services, and other key members of the senior center in a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The patio was part of the original drawings for the Senior Center when it was constructed in 2019, but the patio never came to fruition. Last year, Governor Ned Lamont allocated $10 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to senior centers to help “[combat] some challenges of COVID-19,” Griffith said.

Griffith continued, “Newtown was allocated $60,000 based on size.” The funds could be used for “facility improvements or programming…we feel [the patio fits] both,” Griffith added.

John Curtis, town engineer, helped Griffith with the patio design, “Natalie and everyone came together with a design, and I just tried to get it on paper for them…Giglio came up with the idea for the bench — I don’t want to take all the credit.”

As Griffith addressed the crowd, she said, “We hope this patio becomes an extension of our beautiful home here at 8 Simpson and become a well-loved and used destination for our members. I just want to give a special thank you to our Public Works department, and John, our town engineer, and Kerri, our purchasing agent, for making this project a reality.”

She continued, “Especially a thank you to Wendy and Nicole, who are both approaching their two-year anniversaries with Human Services and at the Senior Center…It is amazing how much we have grown with the love and dedication that they give every day.”

Griffith is excited to show the members the new patio and cannot wait to “look out and [see] our members enjoy the space together.”

Nancy Shirk, a member of the Newtown Senior Center, said, “I think it’s gorgeous. We’re so blessed to have such an active senior center.”

Another member, Dolly White, kept it short and simple, “I love it.”

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Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.