Lions Club Pancake Breakfast To Support Al’s Trail

The Lions Club of Newtown in conjunction with The Leo Club from Newtown High School will hold a pancake breakfast on Saturday, March 20, at Newtown United Methodist Church. Funds raised from the breakfast will be contributed to the support of Al’s Trail and will supplement the funding already committed by Newtown Lions Club.

The pancake breakfast that will be held from 7 am to noon. The church is at 92 Church Hill Road in Sandy Hook. There will be pancakes, bacon, sausage, coffee, tea, and orange juice. Table service will be provided. Ticket prices are $7 for adults, $3 for children under 12, children under 5 free, seniors $5.

   Those who are interested can take a guided walk along portions of the trail with Newtown Trails volunteers.  The Lions Club plays a major role in sponsorship of Al’s Trail, which when completed will be an 8.5 mile greenway from the Reed School to Upper Paugussett State Forest. This greenway is a part of the town’s renewed dedication to open space acquisition as a means to preserve Newtown’s declining inventory of rural scenery and to stabilize its rising tax rate.

Most recently Newtown’s Ad Hoc Open Space Committee decided to name the greenway after Al Goodrich who died earlier this year at 83 years of age. He retired as an engineer 20 years ago and spent ten years meticulously mapping existing trails, blazing some new ones, and rediscovering a network of abandoned railroad paths that knit together the far flung town. Al Goodrich, together with his friend Mary Mitchell, began creating the pocket-sized Newtown Trails guidebooks to assist people wishing to take an adventure right here in Newtown.

The books feature foldout maps, illustrations, historical comments and a few photographs of interesting areas along the trails which are available to equestrians and bikers as well as hikers. The original book was published in 1991, and several updated versions have since been printed. Proceeds from the book benefit Friends of the Booth Library.

Newtown Lions Club is very active in supporting the local community. It raises funds in support of Newtown Fuel Bank, Meals on Wheels, the Newtown Fire Commission, Women in Newtown, Newtown Youth Services, Ability Beyond Disability, The Newtown Fund Christmas Baskets, Family Counseling Center, and many other community activities and agencies. It is also actively involved in providing manpower for community activities such as local blood drives, renovation of trails at the Orchard Hills Park, construction of the playgrounds at Treadwell Park.

Those attending the pancake breakfast also will be helping support the community service activities of the Newtown High School Leo Club.

The Leo Club is a student organized and operated program at the high school whose goal is to teach young people how to organize and contribute to community service projects. The Lion’s Club stepped forward to sponsor the club when the Key Club was discontinued after the Kiwanis Club stopped operating in town. The Leos have been active in most of the service projects that the Lions have participated in over the last couple of years.