Newtown is filled with interesting people and people with broad interests. The Newtown Bee is fortunate to have many of them share their stories and ideas with us each year. Here is a sampling of the stories we had the privilege to bring to our readers in 2016.

In January, we spoke with friends Stacey Lokey of Newtown and Carolyn Caplic of Oxford, who recalled having tea together one afternoon nearly 20 years ago, and brainstorming about designing some kind of product for the home. Before they knew it, they were talking trash - trash bags, that is. Nearly 17 years later, a lot of research and effort has put their dream product, Garbage-eez from Mom-eez, LLC, into the hands of consumers. Garbage-eez stores garbage bags in a plastic container in the bottom of the pail, and dispenses the roll of perforated 13- to 16-gallon tall kitchen garbage bags one at a time, saving time and storage space. The placement of their product in local stores means that they are no longer just talking trash.

There are similarities between orthodontics and car restoration, Dr Curtis Beck told The Newtown Bee in February, revealing a side to the Queen Street orthodontist of which residents may not have been aware. "I like to work with my hands. I love mechanical things, and I've always been able to fix things and put things together," he said. It may explain why, when this local orthodontist is not tinkering inside the mouths of patients, he is tinkering under the hood of one of a number of antique cars he owns. His stable of cars includes a few early American vehicles, such as his a 1930 Model A and the 1929 Edsel M-type Ford actually owned by Edsel Ford, and a smattering of vintage European cars. It also contains, he confessed, an "embarrassing" number of MGs.

When he talks about any aspect of flying, Sal Manganaro's face lights up. There is more than a trace of the 6-year-old boy who gazed up in the sky at planes going overhead and dreamed of being a pilot. That was more than 70 years ago. On February 23, Mr Manganaro was honored with the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award during a ceremony at the Flight Instructors Open Forum in Moonachie, N.J. Issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the prestigious award celebrates pilots with 50 years or more of safe flight. The award makes Mr Manganaro one of only 3,500 of approximately 600,000 active pilots so honored by the FAA since 2003.

As of May, Newtown youth have an opportunity to tap into 40-plus years of musical experience. Award-winning composer, film scorer, sound designer, and musician Richard Musk, widely known as RAM, opened his Newtown music studio to students in fourth grade through college to learn the skills that have enriched his own life, and help them realize their own visions.

Nearly 100 friends, colleagues, supporters, and more than a few individuals who were deeply inspired by former First Selectman Joe Borst and retired School Superintendent John Reed gathered October 23 in the Great Room of Newtown Congregational Church to pay respects at an annual event conceived by First Selectman and host Pat Llodra to recognize two of the community's most cherished residents.

The C.H. Booth Library received the bittersweet news in November that Library Director Brenda McKinley would be leaving for a position as director at the Ridgefield Library. While all wish Ms McKinley the best in her new job, staff and patrons found it hard to say goodbye to the longtime Booth Library employee, on December 16. A search committee is currently working to find a new director, and Beryl Harrison, another longtime librarian, has graciously agreed to be the interim director.

Town officials and residents celebrated the service of several longtime town employees who retired this past year. Human Resources Director Carole Ross retired in mid-April; Economic Development Coordinator Betsy Paynter moved on in September; and Carol Mahoney, tax collector, and the Newtown Building Department's Marie Naglieri retired the latter part of 2016.

Two Girl Scouts of Newtown also worked this year to use their experience and talents to help others achieve their highest potential. The Newtown recipients of the 2016 Gold Award were Anika Dholakia and Grace Herrick. They were honored by their mentors on June 12 with a special ceremony at the Cyrenius H. Booth Library that showcased their projects.

For Anika's Gold Award Project, she taught senior citizens at Maplewood in Newtown how to use personal technology devices like smartphones, computers, and tablets. She also created training materials, like pamphlets, as reference guides. In her classes she had students ranging in age from 75 to 93 years old.

Grace created an early education program for children in Nakaseke, Uganda, with the help of ACCESS (African Community Center for Cultural Sustainability) for her Gold Award Project. Her preschool program runs once a week, on Saturdays, in one of the nursing school classrooms at ACCESS. It currently has a waiting list to get in because the community has such a need for it. Grace was also one of eight participants from across the nation to be chosen to attend the Girls Scout's National Celebration this past summer.

Another member of the Newtown community who is working toward educating children is resident Paul Meisel. He is the illustrator for more than 70 picture and early reader books. His newest children's book, Good Night, Bat! Good Morning, Squirrel! was released in September by Boyds Mills Press and is the story is about a friendship between the main characters, Bat and Squirrel. Through a series of misinterpreted notes, the two learn the impact their words and actions have when establishing a new relationship.

Mr Meisel explained, "Teachers and reviews [of the story] have noted it's a good book to learn how to communicate accurately, like writing what you mean."

His next official release is a collaborative project that he worked on with his oldest son, Peter. The father and son duo created two children's chapter books, where Mr Meisel did the illustrations and his son wrote the story. The books are called Stinky Spike The Pirate Dog and Stinky Spike and the Royal Rescue. They are set to be the introduction to the new Read & Bloom series from Bloomsbury, and will be individually released this March.

In October, as thousands of children eagerly counted down the days until Halloween so they can trick-or-treat on Main Street, the street's residents began looking for candy sales with as much anticipation. Every year, Main Street residents like Jane Luongo, Doug McDonald, and Tracey McManus work hard to make sure that not only does each of the 3,000 trick-or-treaters that visit their doorsteps get a piece of delicious candy, but that they also get a fun-filled memorable experience by going all-out with themed decorations. These Halloween heroes even use their own money to pay for hundreds of dollars of candy for each house and spend their free time making elaborate jack-o-lanterns and decorative props for their displays.

"It is a wonderful time," said Ms Luongo. "The atmosphere on Halloween is like a family Mardi Gras. It is all good natured and fun with people out talking to each other. It's not spooky and dark. We do enjoy it, and the spirit of it all is so reflective of our town."

Many thoughtful community members generously donated candy to Main Street residents and were able to make a positive difference in the residence's preparation for Halloween.

Another tight-knit neighborhood that featured fun people in town were the residents of Sawmill Ridge Road. Wendy Leon-Gambetta and her husband, Ernesto, recently moved into their third house on Sawmill Ridge Road in Newtown in less than 25 years. In November, the Leon-Gambettas invited a handful of their Sawmill Ridge neighbors to come over to their new house and talk about what makes their neighborhood so special.

Karen and Michael Stern, David and Kathleen Deschenes, and Alex Ache were in attendance and spoke fondly of all the memories they have created with their friends in the neighborhood over the years. They talked about their Memorial Day picnics, Halloween group photos, last day of school ice cream parties at the McLeod family bus stop, Fourth of July celebrations, the neighborhood Christmas caroling, and even the Ache Family's occasional canoe rides - yes, canoe - with the neighborhood children down the snow-covered hill in their backyard.

Also, even through difficult seasons of life - like the death of a loved one, or illnesses - the neighborhood has proven it was always there to come together and take care of each other.

The group of neighbors all agree they have become one big family. Whether it is driving neighbors' kids to school or checking on a vacationing neighbor's home when an alarm goes off, or taking out a neighbor's trash can upon request when they forget - they are there for each other.

After moving from the city, Ms Deschenes realized that life was very different in this neighborhood. She joked, "People would come to the door, and we'd be like, 'What do they want?' They'd have bread, wine - it was like Mayberry [the fictional television town from the 1960s Andy Griffith Show]."

Ms Leon-Gambetta noted affectionately, "We are lucky, aren't we?"

And Newtown is lucky to have had such a wonderful 2016, getting to know all of these interesting people.