Tickets Available For The  Great Pootatuck Duck Race

The Newtown Lions Club and Treadwell Park Committee invite the public to attend The Great Pootatuck Duck Race to benefit the playground construction in Treadwell Park. The big event will be from 10 am to 2 pm on Saturday, May 26, rain or shine.

On that day individually numbered plastic ducks will be placed in Pootatuck River at the bridge in Sandy Hook center. They will float down to the walking bridge between Glenn Road and Dayton Street, where they will pass through a barrier. The first 22 ducks to pass the barrier will win prizes for their “owners.”

First prize is a 50-inch Toshiba Theatre View color television, second prize is a Sony PlayStation 2, and third prize is an air hockey table. Other prizes include tanning certificates, a two-year subscription to The Newtown Bee, a four-foot Subway sandwich, a one year Newtown pool pass, a half day of beauty, a scooter and helmet, and a night and breakfast at Hilton Gardens.

The Great Pootatuck Duck Race is being held in conjunction with The Sandy Hook Village Festival. Under the direction of Mike Porco, Sandy Hook merchants have joined together to have a carnival with games and rides for people of all ages. The carnival will continue into the night after the Great Pootatuck Duck Race is over as well as Sunday, May 27, and Monday, May 28.

Face painters and musicians will also brighten the day of the duck race as well as a number of booths of Newtown volunteer organizations, who will be handing out information or selling their wares. Sandy Hook restaurants and delis will offer an abundance of delicious and varied food and souvenir ducks and T-shirts will be sold by Newtown Lions Club.

Tickets are $5 each and are available at C.H. Booth Library, Advanced Real Estate, Newtown Health & Fitness Club, Dr Gellert’s office, Drug Center, Fleet Bank, Sandy Hook Deli and Newtown Florist. As other merchants come forward and offer to sell tickets, their names will be added to the list.

Anyone interested in setting up a booth should contact Jerry Cole at 425-4529. Those who would be willing to sell tickets in front of some Newtown stores on weekends are asked to contact Tammy Marks at 426-5333. Anyone with additional ideas for Sandy Hook Village Festival or have any other questions, call Jim Larin at 426-8971 or Gordon Williams at 426-6443.

“We want to make this a special day for Newtowners,” said Jim Larin, the chairman of the Great Pootatuck Duck Race. “The Great Pootatuck Duck Race and the Sandy Hook Village Festival — with their booths, good food, carnival rides, musicians and face painters — should be a festive day. We believe this will prove so much fun that it will become an annual event.

“This year the proceeds will benefit the playground of Treadwell Park, but next year there can be another good cause,” Mr Larin continued. “And, so it can go and build every year. But the secret of the growth is to have a smashing start this year and that is what we hope we will have.”