Town Crier Articles

Posted on July 1, 2025 7:00 AM by Eden Glenn
 
A generous community. Dedicated volunteers.  A simple process.
 
 New Town just made it happen!
  • Approximately 85 New Town households contributed by leaving food donations on their porches the second Saturday of each month for the past 12 months.
  • Teams of volunteers in green shirts collected donations from each neighborhood and took them to a central location for weighing.
  • Donations were then loaded onto trucks/vans from local hunger relief organizations for distribution to at-risk families.
Total donations (in pounds) by neighborhood for the period July 2024 – June 2025:
 
Abbey Commons 1,494
Charlotte Park 4,543
Chelsea Green   441
Savannah Square   586
Shirley Park 1,857
Village Walk 1,087
Center Street Condos   180 (4 months)
Total all neighborhoods   10,188
 
Many thanks to all the households who contributed this past year and a special thanks to the volunteers who helped made it an easy process. New Town’s PORCH volunteers who assist on a regular basis include Judy Byrnes, Tricia Byrne, Kathy Casey, Holly Demster, Gayle Duncan, Liz Fones-Wolf, Bob Glenn, Eden Glenn, Lynn Griswold, Paul Griswold, Daisy Henna, Bob Hyatt, Gale Hyatt, Joanne Kramer, Diane Langhorst, Angela Lesnett, Fred Lesnett, Diane Malinowski, Anouk Mapp, Ellen Morgan, John Morgan, Rick Richards, Ellen Weidman, Tim Weidman, and Sommer Wrona.
 
These monthly food drives are conducted under the umbrella of PORCH Communities, a grassroots, all volunteer organization established in 2010 and headquartered in Chapel Hill, NC.  Presently, there are 550 neighborhood chapters in 10 states. PORCH Communities Williamsburg was the first chapter in Virginia. New Town is one of 10 neighborhoods participating in the Williamsburg chapter. 
 
Here's a recent news artlcle about how the Williamsburg area PORCH communities are responding to the food insecurity need and how appreciative the pantries that receive PORCH food are.  https://wydaily.com/latest/local/2025/06/09/new-food-pantry-donation-program-in-williamsburg-makes-it-easy-to-give-back/
 
Monthly food drives are on-going.  Starting this month, New Town will be collecting donations on a rotating basis for Williamsburg House of Mercy, FISH, and Grove Christian Outreach Center.  If you would like more information or would like to volunteer, please contact either Gale Hyatt (ladyhappy73@gmail.com) or Eden Glenn (edenaglenn@gmail.com.)
 
 
Posted on July 1, 2025 6:55 AM by Town Crier Staff
 
From July 2024 to June 30, 2025, here's a look back at how New Town's collection of 10,000 POUNDS of food was achieved.
 
A generous community. Dedicated volunteers.  A simple process.
 
FOOD DONATIONS from a generous community.  
 
 
PORCH TEAM of dedicated volunteers.  
 
Then:  
 
 
 
   
Now:
 
 
FOOD PICKUP/DELIVERY - A simple process.
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
Posted on July 1, 2025 6:55 AM by John Morgan
 
On June 13, more than 30 neighbors in the Chelsea Green neighborhood gathered for their annual potluck picnic. The food was delicious, and there was even a vegan table. We got to visit with old friends and meet new ones. There was also a frisbee golf course set up on the green with some friendly competition. The annual picnic is organized by John and Ellen Morgan, residents of Chelsea Green for 12 years.
 
   
 
 
Posted on July 1, 2025 6:54 AM by Liz Fones-Wolf, Activities Committee
 
On June 5th and June 27th, Williamsburg resident  Grace Konar (Konarkowski) and New Town resident Aneta Leska, who has worked at William and Mary's Global Research Institute, spoke about their lives in Poland.  They captivated their New Town audiences with vivid family stories, with Grace at the first talk drawing on her parents and grandparents memories to talk the German invasion of Poland and the Holocaust.  At the second talk, both Grace and Aneta shared stories from their own memories of state surveillance, escape and resistance in postwar Communist Poland.   Family photos and documents from the concentration camp archives provided vivid images, complimenting their stories.
 
This is Part 1 of a series about their talks.
                                                                   
The Konarkoski's Family Experience in World War II
 
On June 5, Grace Konar described  the impact of the war on her mother’s family, who lived in Warsaw. With the German invasion of Poland in 1939, her grandfather, Leopold Grzechni, was mobilized to fight, was captured and then disappeared, possibly having been sent to France as a slave laborer. At the end of the war six years later, he returned by ship to Gdansk, a northern port city, too weak to be sent home to Warsaw.   
 
Her mother, Janina, and her siblings, all young adults, were among the three million Poles deported to Germany as forced laborers to toil on farms and factories. Her grandmother, Stefania, and her youngest child remained in occupied Warsaw. With food in desperately short supply, Stefania told Grace stories of how she engaged in the dangerous practice of smuggling food from the countryside, which carried the penalty of death. Stefania survived 1944 Polish resistance uprising, which the Germans brutally repressed, killing more than 200,000 Poles. Amazingly, Stefania and her children all survived the war and after regaining contact with Leopold settled in Gdansk. Scarred by the violent separation of her family, for years she insisted that all her children, their spouses and grandchildren live together. Grace lived in this large household with seven cousins.
 
Drawing on remembered conversations with her husband’s parents, Balbina Marcinak (maiden name) and Czeslaw  (Iga) Konarkowski, Grace described Balbina's activities with the Polish resistance. In 1943, Balbina was captured, tortured, and transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland where the number 45917 was tattooed on her arm. Iga, a Polish soldier, was captured shortly after Germany invaded and initially held in a POW camp in Germany.  
 
Both ended up in the Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Austria, where men and women were separated. Conditions in the camps were horrendous; random beatings and killings, back-breaking work, constant hunger, no coats or gloves during the winter and no other belongings aside from a thin blanket and a bowl or cup. Grace passed around the audience the small metal cup that Iga used at Mauthausen and also spoke of the notorious quarry, where for a short time Inga helped carry giant slabs of granite up 186 steps. (See photos of Mauthausen below.) However, Iga’s fluent German, his skills as a musician and in Grace’s words “his beautiful Gothic German handwriting” mostly protected him from such brutal work.  
 
     
           
In early May 1945, in the midst of the confusion associated with the U.S. Army’s liberation of Mauthausen, Balbina and Iga met on the grounds of the camp and three weeks later married and made their way back to western part of Poland. Balbina gave birth to Michal (Mike) Konarkowski, who at the age of fourteen met Grace at a youth camp. They both went to university in Gdansk, where they subsequently married. Grace and Mike believed that his parents suffered from PTSD, with Iga always nervous and afraid that the Germans would invade again. Balbina was obsessed with hunger and never would throw away any food, even stale bread.
 
   
(Above: Iga and Balbina, 1939)
 
As time for the talk ran out, at the audience’s urging, Grace agreed to finish her story at a second talk later in June.  After the session ended, residents gathered around Grace to ask more questions. Among them was New Town resident Aneta Leska. Although there is a tiny group of Polish immigrants living in Williamsburg, Aneta, who is a generation younger than Grace, had never met her. As fate would have it, Aneta was born in Poland in 1978, the very year that Grace and Mike emigrated, and her family was part of the Polish democracy movement led by Solidarity that ended Communism in 1989. Aneta readily agreed to provide insights from her family’s perspective at the next talk.
 
Look for Part 2 of the families' stories in the August Town Crier.
Posted on July 1, 2025 6:50 AM by Town Crier Staff
 
Here are some of the New Town residents who enjoyed some fun - and free pizza - at the pool on June 7th during the NTRA Activities Committee's first pool event of the summer season. 
 
 
 
 
 
Even our newest Board member, John Stratton, and his family - long-time Pool Committee volunteers - got a little break!
Posted on July 1, 2025 6:45 AM by NTRA Activities Committee
 
JOIN US FOR SOME SUMMER SIPS & POOLSIDE CHIPS
 
EVENING POOL SOCIAL  
 
July 18th  - 7:30 to 9:00
 
Join the NTRA Activities Committee for a poolside evening of fun on July 18 from 7:30-9:00pm! We will be enjoying live music by New Town's own Phil Casey.  There will be appetizers, door prize raffles and cold drinks served.
 
Feel free to bring adult beverages, but remember NO GLASS - so fill up those aluminum tumblers at home and come and join us.  
 
 
************
 
 
POOL VOLLEYBALL - MONDAY EVENINGS
 
6 to 7:30 PM
 
We play using a light ball on Mondays (rain date Wednesdays) between 6:00 and 7:30.  Everyone, who is at the pool, from older kids to seniors, is invited to play and no experience or swimming skills are necessary.  Feel free to play regularly or occasionally.  Come and join the fun!  
   
Any questions, contact, Liz Fones-Wolf at efwolf@wvu.edu.
 
 
 
 
ALL OF THESE GREAT EVENTS ARE SPONSORED BY THE NEW TOWN RESIDENTIAL ASSOCIATION ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE
Posted on June 1, 2025 7:00 AM by NTRA Activities Committee
Categories: General
 
“Grace’s Story:   A Polish Family’s Experience Under Nazi Fascism and Communism, 1939-1978”
                                               
THURSDAY JUNE  5
 
11:00 AM
 
NTRA Meeting Space
 
5118  Center Street
 
Join us this Thursday for a talk by Williamsburg resident Grace Konar.  Grace immigrated from Poland to the United States with her husband, Michael and young son in 1978.  She will share family memories of the impact of World War II on her family, the Magnusenwski’s, and her husband’s family, the Konarkowski’s.  
       
The war shattered Poland and both families.  During the German occupation of Poland, Grace’s mother and several of her siblings were sent as forced laborers to Germany, while Michael’s parents struggled to survive in concentration camps in Poland and Austria.  She will also share her memories of life as a child and young adult in post-war Communist Poland and her family’s immigration experience.   
 
 
Sponsored by the New Town Residential Association Activities Committee
Posted on June 1, 2025 6:57 AM by NTRA Activities Committee
 
The New Town Residential Association continues our wonderful relationship with William & Mary and the Athletics programs!  While the weather tried to chase us away, many steadfast New Town residents attended the W&M baseball game against the College of Charleston on Sunday, May 4th for food, friendship, and fun.  Almost 40 New Town residents joined us for the game where we enjoyed field level seats along the 3rd base line. Foul balls aplenty were scooped up by the kids present, and “traded in” for free sodas at the concession stand!  
 
What would a baseball game be without hot dogs!  Plenty of hot dogs and more were provided by the Activities Committee.  Several winners came away with some fun door prizes including a W&M Team poster signed by all of the players, and a baseball signed by the team and coaches.
 
While the team was competing on the field, competition was happening in our field level picnic area as players of all ages challenged each other to games of cornhole with the winners taking bragging rights!
 
Many thanks to the amazing volunteers from the NTRA Activities Committee as well as the other volunteers who helped organize and present another fantastic NTRA event.  Thanks to the William & Mary Athletics office for all of their work and cooperation for another New Town/WM event.
 
Thanks also to our volunteer photographers for these pictures!  Look for more NTRA Activities Committee events coming up.
 
   
 
 
Posted on June 1, 2025 6:55 AM by David Carter
Categories: Life in New Town
 
Most of us know ground cover in the form of mulch or pine straw. Mulch is available in various shapes and colors, with dyed-brown shredded mulch being the most widely used in residential and commercial settings.  
 
Consistent with first-quality residential communities, ground cover is required for individual lots and must be kept weed free. Mulching should ideally be performed in early Spring on an annual basis for the best results. 
 
Another form of ground cover includes pine straw, available in different varieties, it does not need to be removed annually. All you need to do is put fresh straw on top of old straw to revitalize the color and provide beds with new nutrients, so it’s really a renewable resource. 
 
Benefits of mulch or pine straw include:
  • Protection of tender roots from temperature extremes, keeping the soil warm during cold spells and, conversely, cool during hot spells.
  • Conserves soil moisture by reducing water evaporation rates and moisture loss.
  • Protects against soil compaction by reducing the rain impact. 
  • Encourages water infiltration into the soil, reducing runoff. This is probably the most important benefit, as it prevents erosion. 
On this last point, looking at your garden space, it is important to check regularly to ensure your gutters and downspouts are properly connected, and that you have splash guards in place to distribute rain run-off. We have all seen mulch run off or washing out onto sidewalks and streets especially strong downpours. Edge guards properly installed can also mitigate mulch on the move.
 
There are other forms of ground covers including live plants and rocks. When in doubt or planning to change your landscape, consult our HOA’s ARC Guidelines available on the NTRA website.
Posted on June 1, 2025 6:50 AM by NTRA Activities Committee
 
It's time for our annual community pool gathering - free food and fellowship for the whole family. We will serve pizza, cookies, watermelon and drinks. Come join the fun!
 
SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 2025 
 
12:00-1:00 pm
 
Rain date is Sunday, June 8th.
 
Keep your eyes out for info on our July 18th and August 23rd pool events as well. 
 
All events sponsored by the New Town Residential Association Activities Committee
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