With June just over half-way over, here’s a reminder that dogs must be licensed, as unlicensed dogs are a ticket-able offense, as Newtown Animal Control Shelter announced on its Facebook page, facebook.com/NewtownAnimalControlShelter. Dogs who are older than 6 months must be licensed and have a valid rabies vaccination. It only costs $8 to license a dog if they are spayed/neutered, or $19 for unaltered dogs. This money goes towards the feeding and veterinary care of shelter animals. After the end of the month there will be a late fee. For more information about licensing a dog see newtown-ct.gov/town-clerk/pages/2022-dog-license-information.

Something big is coming up at the end of the month: The Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement, with the support from title sponsor The Tapping Solution, is hosting its annual fundraiser on Thursday, June 30, from 4 pm to 8 pm, at Quassy Amusement and Waterpark in Middlebury. Jesse lost his life on 12/14. Proceeds from the event will benefit Choose Love programming, which provides free character social-emotional development to help children manage their emotions, feel connected, and have healthy, meaningful relationships. This event is in celebration of Jesse’s 16 birthday. The theme of this event, “Have a Lot of Fun,” is the message Jesse left behind for his older brother, JT. The all-inclusive $40 fundraiser ticket includes access to all amusement rides, the water park, the Choose Love Fieldside Pavilion (games, activities and food), free food (hot dogs, burgers, chicken nuggets, salads, fries, sodas, water, dessert), free parking, and a separate event entrance. Tickets can be purchased in person with cash or check at the Newtown Senior Center (see Judy Thomas), Monday to Friday, from 9 am to 4:30 pm. Special event passes can be purchased online at quassy.com/tickets-passes using promo code CL2022. The Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement is a 501(c)(3) organization.

Housatonic Habitat for Humanity (HHH) is looking for some volunteers to help ReStore — the local HHH chapter’s retail store in Danbury Fair Mall — relocate from its current location to its new location. The good news is, ReStore is staying within the mall. Volunteers are needed to help with loading, packing, and moving, Monday, June 27, through Thursday, June 30. Shifts run each day from 9 am until noon and 1 to 4 pm, and there are six openings per shift. ReStore is moving from the storefront next to Old Navy on the lower level, to an upper level storefront outside the former Lord & Taylor entrance (near Apple Store). Anyone interested is asked to send e-mail to morgan@housatonichabitat.org for details or to register.

Following Editor John Voket’s preview and review of The Wedding Pact 2 — The Baby Pact ahead of the June 8 Edmond Town Hall premiere event, the film’s writer and director Matt Berman was so thrilled he decided to include a quote from the review in a national ad campaign promoting the film’s June 14 release in theaters and on various streaming services. All that was missing was him bringing this cat popcorn, but who is complaining…

So who kept those Newtown High School athletes on the field and helped them recover from injuries this past winter and spring? Catch up with Athletic Trainer John Juniet in this week’s sports section. And here is another teaser for you: Immaculate High has a new head hockey coach and he used to block shots for the Nighthawks. That’s hint number one: That he is a goalie. He also won a state championship back in 2014. Still don’t know who he is? Check out the sports section to find out.

Following a few months of meetings at nontraditional locations, The Society of Creative Arts of Newtown (SCAN) has returned to its longstanding meeting-program spot: the lower room of Newtown Meeting House. Members are looking forward to welcoming Karen Israel next week, in fact, for a “Landscape with Water Reflections in Pastel” demonstration. All are invited, free of charge, for the 1:30 pm program planned for Wednesday, June 22. Reservations are not taken, but additional information is available at SCANart.org.

The youth group of Trinity Episcopal Church continues to conduct an online event to raise funds to support the people of Ukraine. The group is auctioning original street art created on authentic Ukrainian currency. Five works are being auctioned, each with an estimated value of $220, and all proceeds will benefit World Central Kitchen. WCK is the not-for-profit, non-governmental organization that has, since late February, operated at least eight kitchens on the Ukraine-Poland border. WCK is working with more than 400 restaurants, food trucks and caterers, which together are producing about 320,000 meals per day to feed the hungry in Ukraine. The Trinity youth group event continues to June 30. Bids can be placed at trinitynewtownct.org/Ukraine-fundraiser.

I read the list of top five newtownbee.com stories — the list is published online and in the print edition — every week. And I can’t help but wonder sometimes. Before and during the COVID-19 pandemic many friends lamented that national news included too much negativity. It is the nature of news on a larger scale that “negative” stories tend to have a larger impact than “happy” stories and are therefore covered more frequently. There are many exceptions. But I can’t help but think that maybe we also hear or focus in on bad things more often than good. Are there happy stories that we miss out on? At the local news level, I read “happy” news everywhere. My fellow Bees certainly do not shy away from covering important heavier topics, and alongside those we cover a great deal of “happy” stories. Take my column for instance ... I am a cat columnist with a bent to sharing celebrations and congratulations. Yet nearly every week the “happy” stories are not clicked on as often as the stories that could be said to convey “negativity,” just based on the nature of the events covered. Remember too, that with larger news sites in particular, the items that are clicked on most often can be used to determine the makeup of future coverage. If the urge to complain about “too much negativity” ever arises, I challenge you to take note of what you read and think about why you read it. Maybe pick up a copy of this paper and flip through each section. Heavier topics are important; just remember, there is “good” being covered too.

For instance, the dates for the graduation ceremonies for Newtown High School and Newtown Middle School fell just too late for our deadlines this week. I can tell you that next week’s print edition will include many smiling Moving Up eighth grade students and graduating NHS members of the Class of 2022.

I’m looking forward to reading next week’s paper almost as much as I am looking forward to you promising next week to ... Read me again.