Poland Village businesses offer walking tour

The newly formed Poland Village Business Association is encouraging people to walk through Poland Village during Celebrate Poland. The Business Association event will take place on June 28 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.

Visitors can start from either the Village Hall or Town One Square and go from business to business receiving free items like cookies, pencils, water, candy, lemonade, book discounts and water bottles. They can register to win gift baskets and even learn to perfect their martial arts skills. Maps of the businesses will be available at the table at Celebrate Poland or the tent at Town One Square. People attending Celebrate Poland will have an opportunity to experience all the unique products and services Poland Village businesses have to offer.

The walking tour is a vision of the Poland Village Business Association to help residents and non-residents alike understand how vibrate the businesses of the village really are. Poland offers bridal shops, consignment shops, jewelry stores, bulk food stores, t-shirt shops, embroidery shops, beauty and barber shops, and many places to eat.

Town One Square, a plaza in the middle of the village, is going all out for the walking tour. Businesses are working together and providing a tent to showcase their services and merchandise. The Martial Arts Training Center will let people try their hand at breaking a board. The Special Touch Salon will be offering temporary tattoos. Participants can also get some free lemonade courtesy of Consign and Design.

Jack Kravitz, owner of Kravitz Delicatessen in the Poland library, has been open for four years.

“I was locked away in the library, never going to see what was happening with other businesses in the area, so I left the deli, walked Poland and found places that I never knew existed. Three consignment shops were close by where a person could buy dresses, children’s clothing and furniture. I even met three generations of jewelers at Aebischer’s Jewelry store. That is why I want to share this experience and help others take advantage of what is going on in the village,” said Kravitz.

Last year, Route 224 was under construction and it was difficult for people to get in and out of Poland.

Ron Eiselstein, owner of the Poland Village Pantry, said “It was hard to get people to buck that congestion. They still came out, but it took an effort and numbers were just down all summer.”

Eiselstein has spent years promoting Poland. He runs the Yellow Creek Theater which shows movies every Friday night during the summer. Some movies have attracted more than 500 people and have brought people from other towns into the village.