CAC Celebrates 35th Anniversary

By Larissa Lytwyn

The year was 1969. It was the year of Woodstock, Neil Armstrong’s groundbreaking walk on the moon — and the birth of the Children’s Adventure Center (CAC)..

“The then-minister of Newtown Methodist Church [in Sandy Hook] saw a need for women in his congregation to have child care services provided for them,” recalled Ruby Johnson, a former Board of Education and CAC board member. “They were women who were really desperate, who didn’t know where to turn.”

A barn on the Newtown Methodist Church property was the first home of the fledgling “Children’s Adventure Center.”

The center began with one teacher and a teacher-director, remembers current Children’s Adventure Center board member Mae Schmidle. Within 10 years the growing center was looking for a new home. It was built on land then owned by the Board of Education.

“[Then Board of Education member] Ms Johnson was instrumental in helping us get that property,” said Ms Schmidle. “She was always very supportive of us.”

The building, Ms Schmidle continued, was designed for the center. Later, it was expanded to accommodate the town’s senior center.

Today, 35 years later, the CAC has 16 staff members, many of whom have worked at the center for decades.

To celebrate the 35th anniversary, the Children’s Adventure Center invites the community to partake in a commemorative picnic, “Butterflies and Pizzas,” on Thursday, June 10, at 5 pm.

During the months of May and June, said Ms Schmidle, the students have been learning about the life of the butterfly

“The board really wanted to do something special for the 35th anniversary,” said Ms Schmidle. “We thought releasing butterflies would be an environmentally sound way to do that.”

In addition, “We will be distributing 500 Frisbees with our center’s logo on it,” she said, and, of course, serving pizzas and other refreshments.

For more information, contact the Children’s Adventure Center at 426-4018.