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Berkshires Beat: Tickets on Sale for Lions Circus
02:02PM / Monday, June 18, 2018
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The performance by the Zerbini Family Circus features amazing performers from around the world and domestic animals - dogs- horses and camels.

It's the circus!

The Dalton Lions Club are now selling tickets for its annual circus, the 25th year it has brought America's oldest performing art to Dalton. Ticket locations are: Val's Variety in Adams; Harry's Supermarket, Wahconah Street, Pittsfield; Green Ridge Variety, Dalton; Dalton CRA, 400 Main St.; and Dalton General Store. Advance adult tickets are $18; that includes two free children's tickets for each adult ticket bought.

The circus is Friday, July 6, at 2  and 7 p.m., Saturday, July 7, at 4 and 7 p.m. and Sunday, July 8, at 2 p.m. The performance by the Zerbini Family Circus features amazing performers from around the world and domestic animals - dogs- horses and camels. The performance runs about 90 minutes.

Through the sponsorship of businesses and individuals, tickets are provided to six area family and children's service agencies. This year $6,000 is needed to support this program. So far the Lions have raised $3,500. Anyone wishing to help can send a donation to Dalton Lions Charities, 36 Claremont Road, Dalton, MA 01226-2009. All donations are tax deductible. The Lions 501c tax ID is 20- 0804055.

In addition, the Dalton Lions' annual David B. Grunow memorial golf tournament will be held Aug. 11 at the Bas Ridge Golf course in Hinsdale. A shot gun start is at 8 a.m. with coffee and donuts followed by steak dinner after golf. The cost is $85, which includes greens fees and cart. This is a four-person team format; the Lions are looking for players. To enter, send a check to Dalton Lions Charities, P.O. Box 213, Dalton, MA. 01227. For more information, ccall 413-684-0252.

 

Walk for Independence

BFAIR will host the third annual Walk for Independence on Saturday, June 23, kicking off at 10 a.m. at the Adams Visitors Center. A stroll from Adams to Cheshire and back (or any distance in between), the walk will be a fundraising event that the BFAIR participants, community members and sponsors can get involved in through sponsored walking, lunch, bucket raffles, and music by Harminy Entertainment.

As a local nonprofit, BFAIR relies on public funds to provide critically needed residential, vocational, habilitative, and clinical services for adults, adolescents and children with developmental disabilities, autism and acquired brain injury as well as homecare services for those aging in their homes.

The registration fee for the walk is $25 for adults and $12.50 for children 10 and younger. Registration includes a picnic lunch and sunglasses giveaway. Interested walkers can easily register and submit payment online, or can alternately call 413-664-9382, ext. 40, or send an email.

Corporate sponsorships are available for the trail, mile, bronze, silver, and gold levels, ranging from $100 to $2,500 respectively. Interested businesses should contact Jennifer Civello by email for more information.

 

Foster families needed

Have you ever considered the possibility of being a foster family?  Maybe it seems overwhelming or life simply got in the way of taking the next step. Berkshire Children and Families will host an information reception on Tuesday, June 19, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at Hotel on North, 297 North St. in Pittsfield. This informal reception will give peoplethe opportunity to speak with staff and foster families and learn more about the process, expectations, challenges and rewards of being a foster family.

All types of families are needed – single and two-parent families, families with or without children of their own, and families who reflect the diversity of the children who need a safe and nurturing home. Becoming a foster family is a choice to make a profound impact on a child’s life.  This is a free event; registration is appreciated and childcare will be provided. For more information, call 413-448-8281, ext. 233, or email her.

 

'Purple in the Park'

Starting at sunrise on Thursday, June 21, the longest day of the year, Pittsfield's Park Square will turn purple as a way to bring attention to the endurance, strength and commitment to life of those with Alzheimer's and their carepartners. It's a day that highlights that every day can seem like the longest for those who provide care. Hosted by the Berkshire Alzheimer's Partnership, The Longest Day is a program of the Alzheimer’s Association.

Starting at 5:15 a.m., participants will begin to mark off the hours of the longest day of the year right up to sunset at 8:30 p.m. Throughout the day, as the time ticks forward, volunteers will maintain a presence in the park. Members of the Berkshire Alzheimer’s Partnership will be on hand to share resources, answer questions and provide support to caregivers. There will be a Time of Reflection at noon, yoga at 8:30 a.m. and at 3:30 p.m., and a candlelight vigil at 7:30 p.m. State representative and former caregiver Tricia Farley Bouvier will share words of hope. Musician/songwriter Steve Smith will provide music.

Community members are invited to stop by at any time during the day to personalize a tribute to someone with dementia or a care provider or to talk with an experienced caregiver. Tune into WBRK during the day as they spotlight tunes appropriate to the occasion. Local businesses are encouraged to show support with purple in their windows.

 

Girls Softball cares

At its annual Spaghetti Supper on June 11 at the Bounti-Fare Restaurant, ACS Girls Softball made a donation to the Pop Cares Foundation. The funds were raised during the winter and spring through the league's "Cocoa For a Cause" campaign where the players (ranging in age from 5 to 18) assembled and sold a hot cocoa kit with all the fixings in a decorative, softball themed bag.

On hand from Pop Cares were Dolores St. Pierre and Pat Mancuso to not only accept the donation but to also enjoy the delicious meal. League president Lou Moser indicated that while providing a softball program, the league is also focused on forming strong, confident and community-minded young ladies who are there to lend a hand to those that are in need.  Moser noted that with the success of first philanthropic project, the league will continue to do so annually for various organizations throughout Berkshire County.

 

Stopping hate

The Great Barrington Police Department has joined more than 50 police departments nationwide that are making data related to hate and bias crime publicly available. In partnership with the Police Foundation, Great Barrington Police will take the important step of promoting transparency and collaboration within the community in order to build awareness of -- and put a stop to -- hate and bias related crimes.

Hate and bias crimes are those that target individuals or groups based on their race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious beliefs or disability. They are often under reported and consequently not well documented. By releasing this information to the public in the form of open data, the Great Barrington Police Department is aiming to: narrow the reporting gap; call more attention to the problem in an effort to better prevent these incidents; and set a foundation for two-way engagement and problem-solving between law enforcement and the community.

The Great Barrington Police Department has begun actively working to assemble a data set and make it public via the Police Foundation. The department tentatively plans to make that data available by July 1.

 

Low Number Plate Lottery

Applications for the 2018 Low Number Plate Lottery are now being accepted online at mass.gov/platelottery or by mail. Applicants must apply by Aug. 27 and, if selected for a low number plate, will be notified after the drawing takes place in September.

This year, there are 201 plates that are available through the low plate lottery. Some of this year's low plate characters are 1400, 2558, 4J, Y4, 55Z, 77V and Z81. In 2017, the Registry received more than 11,000 applications, for 162 plates, an increase of 3,000 applications from the prior year.

There is no fee to apply. However, should the applicant be selected as a winner, there is a fee that will be required, as the fee is required of all new license plates, as well as a standard registration fee.

Customers are encouraged to visit the RMV’s website or follow the RMV on Twitter for upcoming details on the drawing, including the date, time, and location of the event. By law, winners must be announced by Sept. 15, and the names of winners will be posted on the RMV website.

 

Building Fundations

The Rotary Club of North Adams welcomed Kimberlee Chappell, literacy/Title I coordinator in the North Adams Public Schools, as its guest speaker on May 22 to update the club members on the grant that the club made to the North Adams Public Schools to purchase three Wilson Language Training Corp. Fundations kits for grades kindergarten through second. The $3,169 grant was made via a Rotary District 7890 grant through the Rotary Club of North Adams.The Rotary District funded $2,000 and the Rotary Club of North Adams funded $1,169.

The Fundations kits and activity cards purchased through the grant have allowed each of the elementary schools in the city to provide uniform literacy training throughout the city.  Each kit was distributed to the special education teacher in each elementary school who works with grades K to 2. The Special Education teachers attended Fundations training in order to support effective implementation of the kits. The kits allowed the school system to align intervention instruction with classroom instruction so that students would have the opportunity for more early literacy skills practice. The kits also helped the special education teachers to identify learning challenges in order to prevent students from developing more invasive reading deficits in the foundational literacy skills.  

The Rotary Club of North Adams had decided to pursue a district grant for funding of these kits after meeting with Dr. Barbara Malkas, superintendent of North Adams Public Schools, during which Dr. Malkas informed the club members that literacy skills developed before third grade are critical to student success throughout their academic career. During the May 22 club meeting, Kim Roberts-Morandi of the North Adams Public Schools, Carolyn Brooks of Berkshire Family YMCA and Joshua Mendel of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts also proposed that the club consider applying for another district grant to help support a new mentoring program being developed by the YMCA and the Berkshire Compact for Education.  The club agreed that this would be another great way for Rotary to help the local youth and will be applying for the grant by June 30.

 

Stay safe on the road

Age Friendly Berkshires invites residents to "tune up" their driving skills this summer by attending one of three AARP Smart Driver Classroom courses, being offered throughout the region, in partnership with the AARP-MA Chapter and local Councils on Aging. The Smart Driver courses are specifically designed for older adult drivers to review their knowledge of the rules and hazards of the road, to reduce the occurrence of motor vehicle accidents and traffic violations.  Increasing driver and pedestrian safety is one of several Action Steps to improve regional Transportation in the Age Friendly Berkshires Action Plan, whose launch was celebrated in mid-April.
 
The course fee is $15 for AARP members and $20 for non-members, which includes lunch. For a complete listing by location to any of the classroom offerings, click here. https://secure.aarp.org/applications/VMISLocator/searchDspLocations.action In Berkshire County, classes will be offered at Fairview Hospital in Great Barrington on Thuesday, June 21, and Friday, July 13 (call 413-394-4427), and the Froio Senior Center in Pittsfield on Wednesday, June 27 (call 413- 499-9346).

 

BCC Awards Night

The Berkshire Community College Foundation and its donors awarded hundreds of BCC students' scholarships for the next year on May 31 in the Robert Boland Theatre. This year, the BCC Foundation awarded nearly $315,000 to more than 175 students for the upcoming academic year. That is an average of $1,800 per student-- and it represents more than 25 percent of the cost of attending BCC for a full year, now a bit over $6,000-- including tuition, fees and the cost of textbooks.

In order to be eligible to apply for scholarships, students must be in good academic standing and meet both minimum grade point and earned credit requirements. Jonah Sykes, manager of marketing and communications at the college, was the emcee – with support from Melissa Myers, the BCC Alumni Committee chair, and Beth Wallace, the assistant dean of students. A number of donors presented their scholarships to the winning students in attendance as well.

 

BCD awards

Berkshire Country Day School, an independent school for students in preschool through ninth grade, celebrated its seventh and eighth graders at an Awards and End of Year Closing Ceremony held Wednesday, June 13.

Certificates for completing the course of study through eighth grade were presented to Aurora Benson, Symaira Elliott, Donald Miller and Will St. John, Pittsfield; Abbey Boyd, West Stockbridge; Anje Capala, Spencertown, N.Y.; Halle Davies, Lenox; Esme Lazar and Ryan Sonsini, Great Barrington; Jamie McDonnell, Old Chatham, N.Y.; Clara Mollerus, Otis; Keely O'Gorman, Lee; Alex Rodriguez-Benjamin and Sean Sylbert, Monterey; and Henry Van Schaick and Chase Vermeulen, South Egremont.

In addition,the following eighth-graders were recognized for academic accomplishments: Abbey Boyd, Gail Heady Citizenship Award; Anje Capala, Anna Zaffanella French Prize; Halle Davies, Marilyn Orner Cromwell Art Prize; Symaira Elliott, a Steffi Fletcher Creative Writing Prize; Esme Lazar, Eighth Grade Science Prize; Clara Mollerus, Excellence in History Prize, Ned Douglas Mathematics Prize, and Eighth Grade Spanish prize; Keely O'Gorman, Viv Murray Caputo Vocal Music Prize and a Steffi Fletcher Creative Writing Prize; and Chase Vermeulen, Marcia V. Jones Latin Prize

The following seventh graders were also recognized for academic accomplishments: Sam Creelan, East Chatham, N.Y., a Eugénie D. Fawcett Classics Prize; Gus Geremia, Great Barrington, a Seventh Grade English Prize; Miles Goldfarb, Hudson, N.Y., Virginia I. Peterson Citizenship Award; Rafi Karpowitz, Hudson, N.Y., United States History Prize, a Eugénie D. Fawcett Classics Prize, and Seventh Grade Growth in French Prize; Eli Mamousette, Craryville, N.Y., Theater Ensemble Prize and a Nancy Cowhig Growth in Mathematics Prize; Esme Mamousette, Craryville, N.Y., a Nancy Cowhig Growth in Mathematics Prize' Lilah O'Neil, Stockbridge, Seventh Grade Growth in Spanish Prize; Petra Orloff, Ghent, N.Y., Seventh Grade Science Prize; and Samantha Seeley, Richmond, a Seventh Grade English Prize.

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