As 2021 draws to a close, your Newtown Bee is looking back in retrospect at many memorable happenings — mostly good, some unfortunate or even tragic — in today’s final edition of the year.

We encourage readers to sit back, relax, and take a few minutes to catch up on the many high points of our reporting and features that were created covering town government, the school district, our Board of Education, recreational and cultural activities, our emergency services departments, Planning & Zoning matters, sports, religion, local transportation projects, even environmental news.

This edition also looks back on a number of notable Newtowners who the community lost in 2021. We also mixed in dozens of images to help remind anyone perusing your local newspaper and media service of the many incredible, inspiring, and important moments caught by the camera eye.

Today’s edition also looks ahead, particularly to greeting Newtown’s first new resident of 2022. We are hoping to hear from any expecting parents in town whose bundle of joy arrives after 12:01 am this Saturday morning.

For 61 years, The Bee has welcomed the community’s first baby of the New Year and showered their households with prizes and gifts from many local businesses and service providers. This year will be no different.

The winning parents will be the ones who send the earliest birthdate (and time, if necessary, to break a tie) to The Newtown Bee by noon, Tuesday, January 4. Parents must be Newtown/Sandy Hook residents and will need to submit the exact time and date of the child’s birth; their name and address; and the place of birth, gender, weight, and name of the newborn.

Friends, family, and neighbors of newborns, you can help too: Make sure the parents of any Newtown newborns know about this honorary title and all the prizes that come with it. Parents and friends should contact Associate Editor Shannon Hicks at 203-426-3141 or shannon@thebee.com with this information.

And while our reporters and editorial staff remain fully engaged connecting readers with topical and timely news from around town, we are also busy compiling our annual “Guide To Newtown,” which publishes annually in March.

While March may still seem eons away from New Year’s weekend, thorough research and preparation ensures we are able to offer every resident an updated go-to resource publication that not only showcases many of the local businesses that need your support and patronage more than ever, but also information on all the community’s religious organizations and places of worship, contact information for all our local, state, and federal officials, government offices, emergency services, service organizations, clubs, sports and recreation organizations, schools, support groups, and the Health District.

Any leaders or liaisons to these various organizations should be expecting a call or correspondence from our offices in the coming weeks, affirming or updating related information so folks in town can reach you. And anyone wishing to secure high profile advertising in the annual guide can do so until January 21 by calling 203-426-3141.

The Newtown Bee and our staff have no idea what 2022 has in store. But we certainly have high hopes for much good news — and extend to each and every reader and visitor to newtownbee.com and our social network sites a very Happy New Year!