“It just keeps going. The snowball starts rolling and you can’t stop it,” said Richard Gaines, the father of 10-year-old American Girl Doll fan, Robyn. (See September 21 feature in The Newtown Bee’s Enjoy section.) Friends and neighbors who tuned into the CBS Early Show on Monday, September 17, may have recognized Robyn, who was one of a number of American Girl fans playing in and about the American Girl Project Playhouse featured on a segment of the show that day and sharing a brief conversation with host Harry Smith.

The playhouse featured on The Early Show is no ordinary playhouse. A result of the collaboration of HomeAid, Pardee Homes, and American Girl, the miniature house is designed to reflect the personality of the American Girl 2007 Doll of the Year, Nicki. The plush playhouse features a split-rail porch, a wood stove, and a stone chimney. Inside the playhouse, Robyn and the other American Girl fans got to try out the flat-screen TV while perched on leather furniture, and check out the numerous American Girl accessories that accent the playhouse.

The Project Playhouse house seen in New York is one of three American-Girl themed playhouses built by Pardee Homes. The others are in Los Angeles and Chicago. The playhouses in those two cities will be auctioned off this fall to benefit HomeAid, an organization that provides housing for the homeless. For some lucky child whose parents are willing to bid between $25,000 and $75,000, the American Girl playhouse can become a part of his or her very own backyard. The playhouse that Robyn explored was donated to WestHELP Greenburgh in White Plains, a transitional housing facility for families with preschool-aged children.

As if that was not enough excitement for the week, Robyn returned to the City on Wednesday, September 19, at the invitation of American Girl Place in New York City, to attend a book signing and to meet Megan McDonald, author of the American Girl book series. CBS Sunday Morning was filming at that time, and interviewed Robyn as part of a special American Girl segment scheduled to be aired Sunday, December 9. Not only that, said Robyn’s father, an NPR reporter on site also interviewed Robyn. Who knows? The next voice you hear on the radio may belong to Robyn.

Four more kids from Newtown made their television debut on Sunday, September 23, too. Margo Trainer, Ashley and Jonathan Malia, and Sarah Liska, all members of either Horseplay or Housatonic Horizons 4-H groups, accepted an invitation from Connecticut News Channel 12 Pet Talk hostess Lauren Collier to talk about their pets. UConn Cooperative Extension System 4-H educator Ede Valiquette, and leaders Joann Malia and Donna Liska accompanied the young people, a cockatiel, a dog, a cat, and a pot-bellied pig to Norwalk for the filming, said Ede. “Part of Fairfield County 4-H is to do promotions on public access to encourage kids to join 4-H. The groups also encourage public speaking skills for the 4-H members, so it was a fun thing for the kids to do,” Ede told me. That’s the good news. The bad news is that you’re going to have to be in the southwestern part of Connecticut the weekend of September 29 to catch the Pet Talk bit, as Newtown does not get Channel 12. Still it’s nice to know there will be some local voices out there on the airwaves promoting 4-H, which is all about adults and kids working together.

Feeling like a good listener? The Newtown Fund has formed a speaker’s circuit and is hoping other organizations in town will invite a Newtown Fund member to speak to their group regarding how their organization can support the efforts of the fund. The fund has provided uninterrupted assistance to residents of Newtown for 48 years. The fund does an annual holiday basket program, works with the town’s Social Services Department, and has also helped establish Newtown Youth Services, The Children’s Adventure Center, the Senior Center, Nunnawauk Meadows, and The Family Life Center. If you are interested in hosting someone from The Newtown Fund to speak at a meeting of your group or organization, send a request to Newtown Fund, PO Box 641, Newtown CT 06470, or call Stockwell, Bates & Co at 270-9312.

Autumn always triggers a big appetite for me, so I’m heading over to Danbury on October 6. Members of the Moms Club of Brookfield East & Newtown will be selling cookies, cakes, and loaves and slices of pound cake to raise money for the Women’s Center of Greater Danbury outside the WalMart on Route 6, from 8 am until 4 pm. The following day club members will join members of the women’s center and other individuals from across the region to participate in the first annual Community United Against Domestic Violence Walk. Need more information? Call 304-7215.

There are some familiar faces taking on new roles at the Newtown Senior Center. Along with the addition of Pat Babbage as assistant to director Marilyn Place, another face recognizable to many at the center is front and center these days. Senior Center member Ida Reiske has taken the place of secretary Lois Pratt, who retired last month. And last, but not least, Marilyn is thrilled to pieces that member Bob Sharpe has agreed to be the new per diem van driver for the center. With the groundwork for the new addition underway, the center is feeling pretty reenergized this fall.

I just hope you are feeling reenergized enough next week to…Read me again.