You Don’t Have To Be New To Be A Newcomer

By Jan Howard

The new co-presidents of the Newtown Newcomers Club, Kristi Regan and Linda Ragusa, are looking forward to an exciting year filled with activities, fun, and friendship.

The club, which has a membership of 140 families, boasts a new motto this year: “You don’t have to be new in Newtown.”

“The new theme means that you don’t have to be new in the community to benefit from what Newcomers has to offer,” Ms Regan said.

“We have so many fun activities and opportunities to make new friendships that we feel anyone, whether they have lived here a long time or just moved in, would enjoy,” Ms Ragusa said. “Sometimes, in a community as transient as ours, someone who has lived here awhile may experience close friends being relocated to other areas, and find themselves a little lonesome.”

The club begins its new season with a kickoff meeting to acquaint residents with its many programs on September 6, at 7:30 pm in the Alexandra Room of Edmond Town Hall.

The group is predominately social, offering an array of activities in which residents can participate and make friends, Ms Regan said.

“We have many different activities, and representatives from all the activities will be at the kickoff,” she said.

“It’s not just for newcomers,” Ms Regan said. “You don’t have to be new. It is for anyone who has had a change in their life, such as someone whose children are now all in school or for empty nesters.”

The Newcomers Club also offers coffees on the second Tuesday of each month at 10 am in the downstairs meeting room of the Newtown Meeting House on Main Street. New members as well as current members are invited to attend. Meetings and activities are held from September to June, and membership can begin at any time during those months.

Dues are $30 per year, which includes a monthly newsletter that previews upcoming activities and programs.

Ms Regan and her husband, Jim, moved to Newtown two years ago after living in Paris for almost five years. This is her first experience with a Newcomers group, though she has been involved in women’s clubs.

A stay-at-home mom, she is involved with the school PTAs and WIN (Women Involved in Newtown). She and her husband have two sons, Matthew, 17, and Kevin, 13. She was born in Michigan.

“I’ve moved eight times in the last 20 years. I’ve been a newcomer in a town often,” she said.

Ms Regan previously served as secretary and activities chairman for Chick Flicks, a girls-night-out group.

The Newtown Newcomers Club offers a wide variety of activities during the day and evening. These include children’s playgroups, dining out groups, bowling, walking group, recipe exchange, ski club, tot tours, a women’s investment group, a breakfast club, Chick Flicks, book clubs, Bunco (a dice game), decorating and crafts club, and a very successful adult playgroup.

“The adult playgroup members do things like antiquing and hiking,” Becky Soder, the club’s publicity chairman, said. “We need new ideas for activities.”

“They have shopping jaunts to help new people get around in town,” Ms Regan said.

“We are constantly adding new activities as the interests of our members change,” Ms Ragusa said.

The Newcomers Club also adopts a family each year through the town’s Social Services Department. “Last year we had a family with four boys,” Ms Regan said.

The club provides back-to-school supplies for the children, holiday baskets, and pool membership for the family in the summer.

A holiday house tour of four members’ homes, decorated in different themes, helps the club raise money for its adopted family as well as other community service projects, Ms Regan said.

Last year the club made donations to the Newtown Ambulance, Youth Services, Visiting Nurses Association, FAITH Food Pantry, Newtown Friends of Music, and the Playground Fund.

In addition to the co-presidents, the Newtown Newcomers’ executive board for the 2001-02 season is as follows: Nancy Obremski and Anne Stein, co-vice presidents/special programs; Carol Henry and Shelley Kappauf, vice presidents/membership; Felicia Conrod and Christine McInerney, co-vice presidents/activities; Helen Benson, treasurer; Judy Loose, secretary; Pat Marshall and Lynne Brault, newsletter.

Standing committee members are Debbie DeLollis and Kathy Hankins, civic and community; Sandi Bodnar and Dot Dwyer, historian; Mandy Tolson, hospitality; Linda Elsenhans and Janice Fields, social; Becky Soder, publicity; Donna Bloomberg and Tricia Kraft, sunshine; Nancy Obremski, ways and means; and Donna White, Webmaster.

Information about Newtown Newcomers Club can be found on its new Web site, which has been up and running since June, www.newtownnewcomers.com.