Children’s Adventure Center Celebrates 40 Years

By Nancy K. Crevier

In 1969, the year that the Children’s Adventure Center (CAC) was organized and began operations out of a barn on the Methodist Church property, Newtown’s population was half of the current population. There was one town park, five schools, no Legislative Council, not a single traffic light, and the entire town government was housed at Edmond Town Hall.

Founded by community leaders who recognized the need for a preschool education for children of single parent and one-income families, and to provide a rich preschool education for children between the ages of 3 and 5, the Children’s Adventure Center now serves 62 families from Newtown and Sandy Hook.

The Children’s Adventure Center was accredited in 2000, according to board chairperson Mae Schmidle and school director Rose Luizzi, and moved to its present address on Riverside Road when the CAC board raised money through grants and donations to build the Multi-Purpose Building that the preschool shares with the Senior Center.

This month, the CAC will begin celebrating its 40th Anniversary with a series of events between now and the end of June. Parent and family programs, restoring the playground, a first-time Art Show at Mocha Coffeehouse on Glen Road, and special school trips are on the agenda to ring in four decades of fun and learning.