By Eliza Hallabeck

In honor of its 50th anniversary, Children’s Adventure Center is set to hold an evening event at Barnwood Grill, 5 Queen Street, on Thursday, November 7, from 6 to 9 pm.

The preschool’s community is busy gearing up for the event.

Children’s Adventure Center Executive Director Anna Ruggiero said, “I’m excited that it is 50 years.”

The 50th Anniversary celebration will include beer and wine, appetizers, dinner, dessert, a live auction, and a silent auction. Tickets are $75 for one or $150 per couple. More information about tickets is available online at eventbrite.com by searching for “CAC 50th Anniversary Fundraiser” or by calling 203-426-3018.

“People can also pay at the door, but they have to make reservations,” said Ms Ruggiero, adding that a cash bar will also be available at the event.

According to its website, childrensadventurecenter.com, the preschool was established in 1969 “by a group of concerned community leaders, as a nonprofit organization, to provide early childhood education for local families. While researching a place for the Children’s Adventure Center, the school opened in a barn on the property of the United Methodist Church in Sandy Hook, CT. Volunteers came and helped repair and prepare the center for the children and staff. In 1971, the center relocated to a contemporary building on 14 Riverside Road. The Center is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors elected annually.”

Ms Ruggiero recently discovered minutes from the first Board of Directors meeting on March 4, 1969. The minutes, typed and saved in a blue binder kept safely at the Riverside Road building, lists those present as, “Chairmen [sic] (President) Rev. Peter Peters, who will also serve as Statutory Agent; Vice Chairman (President) Mrs Earle Sims, also school programming; Vice Chairman (President) Mrs Kenneth Bigham, also Housing; Secretary Mrs Hazel Ford; [and] Treasurer Mr Jack Schwerdtle.” The meeting was held at New United Methodist Church.

“I feel like we’ve been celebrating 50 years for the whole year, every event... What’s special about this is we are actually expanding,” said Ms Ruggiero.

As she spoke on October 7, work was underway to prepare the space that once was the Senior Center, which shared the building at 14 Riverside Road until its recent move to 8 Simpson Street at Fairfield Hills, to expand the Children’s Adventure Center.

The expansion was approved following a Board of Selectmen closed executive session August 19, when a lease arrangement was reached, along with an expansion of Children’s Adventure Center into most of the vacant adjacent space formerly occupied by the Senior Center, as reported by The Newtown Bee.

“The adventure continues,” Ms Ruggiero said.

Plans are in the works for the new space to allow a reading/homework room for before and after school groups for kindergarten to sixth grade students, up to age 12, according to Ms Ruggiero.

“We’ve been doing a lot of renovations. The board’s goal was to raise some money to offset all of the renovations that have been taking place,” Ms Ruggiero said, adding that since taking over the new space, carpet had been pulled up, new paint applied, and “fixes” were completed. The lease was signed on September 1. As of October 7, Ms Ruggiero said there were a few more things to do before the space could be used for children.

Ms Ruggiero said she would also like to extend Children’s Adventure Center’s Department of Social Services (DSS) openings for children and rework a third classroom to help additional families in the new space. Ms Ruggiero said Children’s Adventure Center is the only preschool in town that helps families identified by the Department of Social Services as financially strapped, due to its affiliation with the town and state. Those families are kept anonymous, she added. Not all of the families that have children at Children’s Adventure Center are DSS identified.

“That’s what we are here for; that’s why we are doing this,” said Ms Ruggiero. “We’re hoping, with the expansion of the building and the additional classrooms, we can help an additional 30 families [through DSS].”

Ms Ruggiero said Children’s Adventure Center will not receive further funding from the state for the additional 30 families.

“We can’t help families without additional space,” she added.

Ms Ruggiero said the 50th anniversary is a good time to bring awareness to the fact that there is a financial need in Newtown, just like in other “beautiful suburban towns.”

She explained that Children’s Adventure Center helps families because everyone needs help.

“We want to give quality education,” she said, adding that quality education should not be defined by how much money a family can spend.

Some things have not changed over the years. Ms Ruggiero said Children’s Adventure Center’s staff has always and continues to be “amazing.”

“50 years wouldn’t have been without Mae [Schmidle],” Ms Ruggiero said about the longtime Newtown resident and former State Representative whwo guided the center for many years. Mrs Schmidle died in April. “Mae was amazing... She really did have a passion for Children’s Adventure Center. She believed in helping the community.”

Children’s Adventure Center was fortunate to have Mrs Schmidle, and it continues to be fortunate to have many board members and supporters, Ms Ruggiero said.

She hopes the Children’s Adventure Center’s 50th Anniversary Fundraiser will be an opportunity to bring people who have supported Children’s Adventure Center throughout the years and those who wish to support its mission together.

“I think it will be a great time,” said Ms Ruggiero.

With Children’s Adventure Center’s new space soon to open, Ms Ruggiero said enrollment is always open.

More information about Children’s Adventure Center’s programs is available on its website, childrensadventurecenter.com.