Wednesday, May 14, 2025

News and Ideas Worth Sharing

Kateri Kosek

Kateri Kosek grew up in the Hudson Valley but has lived in or near the Berkshires for over a decade. She is the author of American Eclipse, winner of the Three Mile Harbor Press Poetry Book Award, and a chapbook, Vernal. Her poetry and essays have appeared in Orion, Creative Nonfiction, Northern Woodlands Magazine, Berkshire Magazine, and many literary journals. She teaches college English, and as a lifelong birder, has worked locally surveying bird populations for Green Berkshires and Aton Forest. More at katerikosek.com.

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Free soil analysis workshop at Indian Line Farm aims for more resilient foodscapes in the age of climate change

Rubén Parrilla, who studied Environmental Design at the University of Puerto Rico and has worked with many beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers, is passionate about soil health as a basis for not only environmental health but for growing foods that are free of toxins and good for us.

Great Barrington joins national movement in Hands Off! protest

A peaceful crowd of several hundred protesters filled the lawn and the streets in front of Great Barrington's Town Hall on April 5, part of the nationwide movement of Hands Off! protests against the Trump administration's policies.

Protesters take to the streets of Pittsfield to oppose a wide range of new federal policies

“It's crisis time; we're teetering on the end of democracy,” said protester Lisa Tisdale Wolf. “It's not about party at all.”

World-famous Cajun band comes to Race Brook Lodge

“In Cajun we have a word called ‘lagniappe,’ which means something extra,” Doucet told The Berkshire Edge. It often refers to a little extra food thrown in for free. “So all this is lagniappe for us. We're just having fun.”

Berkshire Humane Society in midst of fee-free adoption week as housing crisis contributes to low adoption rates

“During COVID, we couldn't keep an animal in here,” says Berkshire Humane Society Marketing Communications Manager Catherine Hibbard. Now they have a constant waitlist of surrender calls and have to prioritize who needs them the most.

Students learn the importance of nonprofit work through Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires’ Philanthropy in the Schools program

The Philanthropy in the Schools curriculum, designed by the Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires, begins by asking students what they are passionate about.

NAACP Berkshire Chapter holds annual Freedom Funds Awards

NAACP Berkshires President Dennis Powell reminded a cheering audience that “every dollar raised tonight goes towards creating opportunities for those students to ensure they succeed and thrive in a world that too often tells them they are not enough."

Great Barrington now boasts its own named snow plows

“They took it very seriously,” said Du Bois Middle School teacher Kimberly Cormier, recounting how the students worked to come up with names that had something to do with snow. “It was great to see them just start shooting out names,”

Last week to view ‘Flores cinis terra’ at Simon’s Rock

The stoneware exhibit pays homage to both the Berkshires and ancient global traditions.

Farmsteads for Farmers asks community for support as they prepare to close on River Run Farm

Before moving to River Run Farm, farmers Anna Houston and Rob Perazzo were driving all over the county between small leased plots of land where they did their rotational grazing. Houston believes that had they not moved to River Run, they wouldn’t be in business today.

Becket gathers momentum for dark-sky bylaw after hosting statewide annual conference

DarkSky Massachusetts President James Lowenthal called light pollution “one of the most serious but least appreciated threats to human health and the environment. Unlike plastic in the oceans or greenhouse gases, light pollution is fixed by a flick of a switch.”

Honoring a local hero: Sheffield unveils sign denoting the Brigadier General John G. Barnard Memorial Highway

“One of the roads in West Point is named Barnard Loop,” said Lieutenant General Steven Gilland, “but today he gets an entire highway named in his honor, which I think is much more appropriate for a leader of his stature."

Undermountain Elementary part of Scholastic literacy launch, in effort to put rural schools on the map

Seventy percent of children in the U.S. don’t read proficiently in third grade. “But what we know at Scholastic from kids’ and family reading reports is when kids choose their own books, they read more,” its Chief Impact officer Judy Newman told The Edge.

‘Rescue Berkshires Wildlife’ to hold meeting on SGARs, the rodenticides responsible for numerous secondary poisonings in wildlife and pets

Heather Packard and Mass Audubon are hoping to “build a movement across the state,” and they decided that focusing on grassroots-level organizing and local regulations would be more effective.

Southern Berkshire Regional School District receives selective state grant to develop clean energy curriculum

“I think there's going to be a lot of passion and excitement around this opportunity,” Superintendent Dr. Beth Regulbuto shared. “When kids have a passion for something, they're more apt to take it on. So we're really excited to set them free on this and see what they're going to come up with.”

Sheffield’s recently established disc golf course is a hidden gem

“The Rocks at Sheffield Park” is the only disc-golf course in South County, and the only one in the Berkshires that is both open every day and free to play, according to the disc-golf app UDisc.
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