East Lyme ― Finn Waterman, 4, of Norwich, was eager to ring in the New Year at the Countdown to Noon celebration Saturday at the East Lyme Community Center.

“I can’t wait for the balloon drop,” said Finn, who was dressed in a Stormtrooper costume and waiting to take a photo at the photo booth about 20 minutes before the noon countdown.

His mother, Rachel Burdick, said it’s nice for him to have an opportunity to celebrate the New Year early before midnight and to get to do so many engaging and interactive activities for someone his age.

“It’s special,” Burdick said.

As the clock ticked closer to noon, children and families filled the room at the East Lyme Community Center before the Countdown to Noon event hosted by the Niantic Children’s Museum and East Lyme Parks and Recreation.

The children were so eager for the Countdown to Noon that they started counting down numbers just a little ahead of when First Selectman Kevin Seery was scheduled to begin. They shouted happily as the blue and purple balloons descended from the ceiling to signal the celebration of the New Year.

Families tossed balloons in the air, and children popped the balloons in the festive New Year’s Eve celebration.

“Everybody had a great time, and that’s all that matters,” Seery said. While the countdown might not have had quite the precision as the ball drop in Times Square, he was sure everybody had as much fun as they would be having if they were there.

The event featured booths with activities from the museum, Connecticut Audubon Society, Submarine Force Museum, Regional Multicultural Magnet School, East Lyme Police Cadets, and the Niantic Rotary, as well as a food truck from The Rolling Tomato. Children also posed for photos with Captain America and Black Panther.

Holly Cheeseman, the museum’s executive director, as well as a state representative, said the event was capped at 300 people and sold out.

She said the museum, like so many others, has been short-staffed, but community partners stepped up to offer booths and activities.

“When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, and this is lemonade today,” she said.

Wildlife Encounters of New Hampshire held shows for the families and introduced them to an Arctic fox, a black-throated monitor lizard, a porcupine, a marine toad, also known as a cane toad, a Himalayan rabbit, a woma python, and a vinegaroon, a type of scorpion native to the southern North American continent.

Roberta Travers of Niantic enjoyed the event with grandchildren Robyn, 9, Amber, 4, and RJ, almost 2, who came from New Haven County.

She pointed out the Himalayan rabbit to her grandchildren as Wildlife Encounters showed it to the audience.

“Look, that’s so adorable: the bunny,” she said to them.

“I think this is a really important thing,” Travers said of the event. “Look at the community around us. It’s everybody. People come from far and wide. Between this and the aquarium and the science center, our children have a lot of access to exploratory learning. It’s so important.”

She said she and her grandchildren go to the children’s museum all the time. She also said a lot of the new students from an early childhood education and training program through her employer, Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC) of New London County, go to the museum and the East Lyme Public Library.

Yun and Eric Watt of Old Saybrook brought their daughter Mirielle Watt, 2, to the event because the family likes the museum and it seemed like there were a good number of activities. Mirielle especially enjoyed the animals. Eric said the time of day means 2-year-old Mirielle still can participate in New Year’s Eve activities.

“It’s so wonderful to be with people, and it’s just a nice community thing to do,” Yun said. “It’s nice to be out after COVID. It’s the first big event we’ve done since COVID started.”

“We hope for good health: that this is indeed the end of the pandemic and that we can really just start anew,” Yun said of their hopes for the New Year. “First year of post-pandemic is what I hope for.”

Jessica Newman and her husband, Matt, who is in the Navy, and their children Addie, 2, and Jack, 5, and her mother, Trish Kelley of Niantic, were having fun at the event. Jessica said her daughter was having a blast, and there were so many hands-on activities her son, who is on the autism spectrum, enjoyed, from the balloons to coloring in pictures of submarines.

She said kids don’t typically get to celebrate New Year’s Eve since it’s so late, and the event is a way for them to celebrate as a family.

Jessica said her hope for the New Year is for everybody to learn to enjoy the little things a little bit more and enjoy being able to spend time together more.

k.drelich@theday.com