Public invited to EforAll’s first Berkshires all-ideas pitch contest
Pittsfield — EforAll Berkshire County will host its first pitch contest Tuesday, Oct. 22, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Berkshire Museum. The public is invited to attend as part of the audience.
Applications closed Oct. 11 and a full complement of ideas will be on display.Prizes for the winners, who will be chosen by a panel of judges, are $1,000 for the grand prize winner, $750 for second place, $500 for third place, and $500 for the fan favorite. There will also be two networking opportunities — before and after the contest — and up to 20 entrepreneurs will be talking about their ideas, and looking for feedback and advice.
This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Casey O’Donnell, program manager, at casey@eforall.org.
–E.E.
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Shakespeare & Company announces Susan Dibble as interim director of Center For Actor Training
Lenox — Shakespeare & Company recently appointed Susan Dibble as interim director its Center for Actor Training.
Dibble, a founding member of Shakespeare & Company, is a choreographer, dancer and teacher. Dibble graduated from SUNY College at Purchase with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance in 1976. For the past 39 years, she has worked at Shakespeare & Company as a master teacher of movement and dance for actors, movement director and choreographer, at the same time teaching at a variety of universities including the New York University Tisch graduate acting program. She joined the faculty of the theater arts department at Brandeis University, where she is a full professor and teaches movement for actors, modern dance, choreography, clown, mask, period styles, and historical dance.
In addition to her teaching work, Dibble is the director of Susan Dibble Dance Theater and has performed her work for over 40 years in New York, Massachusetts and Vermont as well as numerous times at Shakespeare & Company in the program “DibbleDance.” She has worked as a choreographer and movement director for the Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Berkshire Theatre Group, Manhattan Theatre Club, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, the Nora Theatre Company and the Underground Railway Theater. For the past four decades, she has been faculty member for Shakespeare & Company’s training program, teaching at the month-long intensive, summer Shakespeare intensive (formerly the Summer Training Institute) and various workshops.
–E.E.
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Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires to host two regional organizations
Pittsfield — The Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires will host two regional organizations to connect Berkshire nonprofits with additional resources to support their missions. Philanthropy Massachusetts will present the free workshop “Introduction to Grants Research” Monday, Oct. 21, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Berkshire Community College. Recommended for those who are new to grant-seeking, the program includes information on “grant readiness,” resources for locating funding opportunities, how to find contributors to peer organizations, donor-advised funds, and donor cultivation. There will also be a demonstration of how to use the Foundation Directory Online, available at the Berkshire Athenaeum. Registration is required.
On Wednesday, Oct. 23, from 8:30 a.m. to noon at Hilton Garden Inn, Financial Development Agency and MassDevelopment will lead “Capital Projects: How to Plan and Pay for Them,” a discussion on how to ready a nonprofit for a capital project and various ways to pay for it. The breakfast seminar is geared toward senior nonprofit leaders, both professional and volunteer, who wish to learn more about capital campaign readiness and financing options available to their nonprofits. The cost is $20.
For more information, contact the Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires at (413) 441-9542.
–E.E.
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Riverbrook receives grant for accessibility improvements
Stockbridge — Riverbrook, a residential and day habilitation program for women with intellectual/developmental disabilities, will improve its facilities with the addition of a small elevator in the main house due in part to a $10,000 grant from the Jane and Jack Fitzpatrick Trust.
Riverbrook’s primary residence is a historic mansion with a grand front staircase as well as a narrow spiral staircase at the rear of the house. To increase convenience and comfort and improve safety, the organization will replace the narrow back staircase with a small elevator, making the house more accessible from the basement through the second floor.
“The new elevator will make Riverbrook easier to navigate for individuals with mobility issues and make it easier for long-time residents to continue to age in place,” said executive director Rebecca Amuso Wendell.
The project, which also requires substantial plumbing and electric upgrades as well as a bathroom remodel, has been assessed and designed by local architect Pamela Sandler. Carefully planned to avoid disruption to residents, the construction project is set to begin in the spring of 2020 with an approximate three-month duration.
–E.E.
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Noble Horizons earns national recognition with five-star rating
Salisbury, Conn. — The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has awarded Noble Horizons its five-star rating.
When calculating its rating, CMS utilizes staffing, measures collated to determine the quality of care, and an overall rating weighted from data collected from health inspections. Noble Horizons excelled in all three categories, including how much time its registered nurses dedicate to each resident on a daily basis (finishing at 54 minutes, a full 13 minutes ahead of the national average of 41). Noble Horizons is one of only two facilities to be awarded a five-star rating in the Eastern New York, Western Massachusetts or Western Connecticut region.
–E.E.
