If you are looking for something to do at 11 am this coming Monday, June 17, the Friends of the C.H. Booth Library will present acrobat Li Liu, who has performed worldwide, at NBA half time shows, and for the Princess Cruise Lines. The show, at Edmond Town Hall, is free and open to all. It will serve as the formal kickoff event for the library’s Summer Reading Program. Rumor has it longtime Newtown restaurateur Louise Tambascio, who was recently named the library’s 2019 Summer Reading Champion thanks to years of support for the annual program, will also be at the kickoff.

Northwest Connecticut Arts Council reminds all that Make Music Day is next Friday, June 21. “Make Music Day began in France in 1892 as the Fete de la Musique and has spread to over 800 cities across 120 countries. This event grew into an international celebration that takes place on the summer solstice of each year. People of all ages and skill levels are encouraged to create music at participating venues all over the region on the longest day of the year,” according to the Council. Does meowing and yowling count?

Readers still have nearly a week left to donate shoes for a collection that will travel to West Virginia before the end of the month. Newtown High School sophomore Tyler DiMartino is asking for donations of gently worn or new sneakers and shoes for men, women, and children, to be distributed when Tyler and other young adults from a number of local churches travel to Summers County, W.Va., for this year’s Newtown Ecumenical Workcamp Servants (NEWS) service trip. Donations can be dropped at Newtown Congregational Church, 14 West Street; St Rose Church, 46 Church Hill Road; the main office of Newtown High School, 12 Berkshire Road; and Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street. The NEWS group will be departing on June 22 and will spend the next eight days working with others through Appalachia Service Project efforts. 

If you are planning on visiting C.H. Booth Library this weekend, make sure you do so before 5 pm Saturday. As of June 16, the library will be in summer hours mode, which means it will be closed on Sundays until after Labor Day.

Are you a Newtown resident who has researched your family (or pet’s) ancestry recently through online resources like 23andme.com and ancestry.com? If so, you are eligible to share your story and be featured in The Newtown Bee series Digging into DNA, Newtown Residents Discover Their Ancestry. Contact Alissa Silber at alissa@thebee.com or 203-426-3141.

The Newtown Bee is also seeking local residents, ages 18 and older, who are interested in being featured in its Snapshot profile. Whether you have lived in town your whole life or just moved here last week, have your chance to be highlighted in the community. To be featured or to recommend someone you know, contact Alissa Silber for that as well.

Congratulations to a local basketball player! Charlie Sepp, a player on the Newtown-based ACC Blue AAU basketball team, made the 14U Division First Team in The GymRat Challenge basketball tournament, held May 25-26 in the Albany, N.Y., area. Charlie’s team competed at Skidmore College Williamson Center in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. In a tournament player write-up, Charlie was described as follows: “A strong forward on the boards. Also has a nice jumper and can dribble with either hand. He can shoot the 3-pointer when necessary. A real leader on the floor. Makes his free throws. Really stands out with impressive footwork in the paint, combined with his hand speed. Very coachable and plays selflessly.”

Taxpayers may not know Newtown’s Assistant Finance Director Leslie Muldoon, but she has been part of the team safeguarding and accounting for Newtown’s bottom line for 30 years. So on the occasion of this milestone anniversary, First Selectman Dan Rosenthal presented her with a certificate of appreciation during a brief gathering with Finance Director Robert Tait and the rest of the Finance Department staff at the Municipal Center. It is nice to know so many Newtown residents have been able to count on Ms Muldoon’s astute accounting talents since she was hired by now-retired Finance Director Ben Sprague.

Everybody hopes they will never need help with things like medical or health issues, support for a loved one grappling with substance abuse, or other personal or family crisis. But if you do, you will soon be able to know exactly where to go to get that help, thanks to a recently completed project from Newtown Health District and The Chamber of Commerce of Newtown. Some time in the next couple of weeks, every residential address in Newtown will receive an envelope from the Chamber containing the first edition of “Need Help,” a quick reference guide to trusted, confidential, and local resources to help members of our community in need. The handy publication can easily be hung from the kitchen fridge or be tucked into a convenient drawer or cubby if needed. So when you see an envelope in your mail from the Newtown Chamber, don’t toss it. You may never need the information inside, but if you know somebody who does, you will be glad you held on to it.

News is trickling out concerning plans for the Eighth Annual Newtown Arts Festival. Scheduled for September 21-22 at Fairfield Hills, the event will again offer two days of music, dance, hands-on art activities, vendors, music, food, beer and wine, and so much more. Now we hear that the weekend will kick off on Friday, September 20, with a performance by Flagpole Radio Café Orchestra. Newtown Cultural Arts Commission has months of work ahead of it, including fundraising. Anyone interested in sponsoring any part of the festival, which in turn fundraises for NCAC’s scholarships and grants, is invited to contact the commission at newtownartsfestival@gmail.com. Arts Festival Chair & Program Coordinator Jennifer Cebry can also be reached directly at 203-270-4327.

Moviegoers will go from one extreme to another if they decide to take in one of Edmond Town Hall’s double features this upcoming week. From Saturday, June 15, through Thursday, June 20, the theater within 45 Main Street will be screening two very different films. Ticket-holders can do a matinee or evening double-feature — the family-friendly A Dog’s Journey will be offered each day at 1 and 7 pm, and the horror film Us is scheduled for each day at 4 and 9:15 pm. Tickets are $3 per person, per screening. Check our calendar on page A-2 (and Edmond Town Hall’s ad, also on that page) or our online calendar for additional information.

It looks like Dorothy and that house of hers will be making another visit to Edmond Town Hall. Eighty years after the celebrated release of The Wizard of Oz — and five years after the timeless film launched the Someday Cinema Series — Dorothy Gale, the flying monkeys, the farmhands-turned-traveling companions, Toto, et al will return to the big screen at 45 Main Street for another set of screenings. The multiple Oscar Award-winning film will be featured on Sunday, June 23, at 1, 4, and 7 pm. Tickets are $3 each, and the first show will be subtitled for the benefit of the hearing impaired, “and for those who would like to softly sing along,” says series coordinator Jen Rogers.

I promise to spend my days searching somewhere over the rainbow and beyond for local news as long as you promise next week to... Read me again.