Dan Hohman, a member of the KOVAR Board of Directors for the Virginia Knights of Columbus charity, reported that the group donated $20,000 to Presbyterian Homes and Family Services in Zuni.

Joe Weisenburger of Windsor is the honoree for this grant.

The money was used to replace the heating and air-conditioning unit for the recreation hall and buy new furniture for group homes on campus.

More than 40 intellectually challenged people live on the Zuni campus, participating in jobs, day-support programs, and cultural and recreational activities.

A 40-year-old organization, KOVAR donates money to groups that provide homes and services to those with intellectual disabilities and Special Olympics.

KOVAR raises money by standing outside stores and handing out Tootsie Rolls. KOVAR will be outside the Franklin Walmart on Saturday, March 31 and April 7.

 

n Dr. Patsy Joyner, who in January retired as vice president for institutional advancement at Paul D. Camp Community College, was featured in a recent newsletter for the College of William & Mary.

Patsy, who worked at PDCCC for 31 years and received her doctorate in higher education administration in 1989 from William & Mary, was a founding member of the college’s School of Education Development Board and served as its first chairwoman.

Pasty also was chairwoman for the Graduate and Professional Schools Alumni Council and served as president and secretary for the South of the James Alumni Chapter. In l996, she received the Alumni Service Award.

The article also refers to Patsy as a committed college donor “known for her unique way of making annual gifts.”

As a graduate student, she committed $10 a month. Later, she gave $16.93 a month because that’s the year William & Mary was established. She also gave an annual Charter Day gift representing one dollar per year since the school got its charter, which would mean a $319 donation for 2012.

n Boykins’ Kitty Lassiter is always a wealth of information. She stopped by the other day to share a story from September 2005 when Nancy Chajka and her brother, Charles Eckenrode, from Adelaide, Australia, visited with friends and family in Boykins.

They stayed at the home of Nancy Draper Parker.

The siblings’ mother, Peggy Draper Eckenrode, is a native of Boykins. She and her husband, Bernard, moved the family to Australia in 1970.

Peggy and another daughter, Rebecca, were not well enough to make the trip. They had hoped to purchase collards, which do not grow in Australia, and Halloween decorations because the holiday is not celebrated there.

Local cousins were fascinated about hearing about Koalas living in the Eckenrodes’ front yard.

GWEN ALBERS is managing editor of The Tidewater News. Her email address is gwen.albers@tidewaternews.com.