Children’s Adventure Center

Expansion Breaks Ground

By Kendra Bobowick

Idle chainsaws, plywood, and piled earth distracted students running for the playground at The Children’s Adventure Center on Wednesday morning.

Mark Averso stood inside the footings of a new space taking shape off the center’s back porch, where two days earlier he and others with Porco Construction broke ground for an addition. Nearby, Michael Porco, Jr, beckoned to a few students who were curious about the heaps of displaced soil and beginnings of a foundation where Mr Averso nailed pieces into place.

Moments before young feet shuffled through the work zone, Chris Johnson stretched out a tape measure against a beam of wood, making calculations. Uncertain if their school was being torn apart or expanded, eight young faces stared at the early phase of work on the construction.

“We are so excited,” said teacher Debbie Holmes. A new 650-square-foot space will give the young girls and boys a chance to play “on any day,” she said. “Even in the rain and the snow, they will have a place to run around.” With 3- and 4- and 5-year-olds in their care, “you really need that,” Ms Holmes said. Pointing at the existing rooms around her filled with small worktables, storage cubbies, and a clutter  colorful toys, she said, “All winter we were stuck in here.”

Additional space allows teachers to break up the class and do additional activities in smaller groups, she added.

Children’s Adventure Center Board Chairman Mae Schmidle unrolled blue prints for the privately funded, roughly $60,000 project that has been a goal of hers for several years. On paper, the building’s single-story, peaked roof will rest above large windows.

“It will be nice, bright, and airy,” said Mrs Schmidle. The new construction will also resemble the existing multipurpose building at 14 Riverside Road where the children occupy one wing, and Newtown Senior Center activities occupy another.

In past years coordinators have been fundraising and seeking financial support for the project. Mrs Schmidle mentioned one anonymous donor who has been gifting $2,500 a year for the past several years.

The project would have begun in December, she said, “but we had so much snow, it got worse, and here it is March!”

Although the addition is funded privately, town crews did do some initial site work. Porco Construction crews are doing the expansion with a targeted completion date of midspring.