Williams College, summer home to many events and conferences, brings business to local merchants

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Williamstown – Williamstown's beautiful setting, its cultural attractions, and Williams College's facilities combine to make Williamstown a popular location for summer events and conferences. This summer's collection of 33 cultural, educational, and athletic programs will draw nearly 5,000 people to programs on the Williams campus, in addition to the attendance at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. "A large proportion of these participants come from outside Williamstown, thereby drawing money into the local economy in the purchase of goods, food, and services," said Marjorie Wylde, director of the conference office at Williams and a long-time resident of Williamstown. One of the most popular summer programs, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, has been drawing huge crowds since 1955. The Festival will run from July 6 to August 24, and in addition to its 500 apprentices, staff, and equity actors, is expected to draw nearly 40,000 attendees throughout the course of the summer. The Council for Advancement and Support of Education will hold its independent schools' seminar on campus to educate teachers (July 31-August 4). Shakespeare and Company (July 31-August 5) is offering a program to help middle school through high school teachers develop new approaches to teaching the works of Shakespeare. The 32nd annual Massachusetts Teachers' Association leadership conference will be held from August 8-August 11. Nearly 800 teachers will attend courses covering topics like negotiations and professional development. Several academic programs for young people will also be held on campus. The Urban Scholars program (June 27-July 9) will give young people a chance to pursue academics at Williams, Putney Student Travel's Excel at Williams College (June 30-July 26) will offer a rigorous academic enrichment program for high school students, and the Apex Project (July 2-10) gives gifted adolescents an opportunity to work with mentors in their fields of interest. Overland Adventure Travel (June 22-August 10) will involve students in community service in the Berkshire area. Arts programming for the summer includes, among other events, The Berkshire Institute for Music and Arts (June 22-July 21), which offers musical and artistic opportunities to talented Jewish high school students. Also, the Clark Art Institute will host a summer school (July 11-17) where volunteer museum guides attend seminars and training sessions. The Berkshire Opera Company will come to campus July 12-13 to rehearse and perform Handel's "Rinaldo." Its performance is expected to draw nearly 500 people. For students between the ages of 5 and 22, the Suzuki in the Berkshires program (July 28-August 5) offers an intensive flute music camp. Many athletic opportunities for young people are also available, including the Squash and Beyond camp (June 19-August 19), Nike Golf Camp (June 19-August 12), Nike Tennis Camp (June 19-August 4), a boys' lacrosse clinic (June 27-30), All Sports Day Camp (July 4-8 and August 1-5), Berkshire Boys' Basketball Camp (July 11-22), the Soccer Academy at Williams (July 17-29), Nike Volleyball Camp (July 24-28), Berkshire County Instructional Football (August 1-4), Nike Baseball Camp (August 7-11), and the Berkshire Girls' Basketball Camp (August 8-12). Additionally, for athletes of a more advanced age, the Chaffee-Hart Memorial Tennis Tournament will run from July 7-10 and bring more than 100 players to the Williams campus. The Williams Alumni-guest Golf Tournament, July 27-31, will include approximately 300 participants and their families.
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Senior Golf Series Returns in September

Community submission
PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- The Berkshire County Fall Senior Golf series returns in September with events on five consecutive Wednesdays starting Sept. 18.
 
It is the 22nd year of the series, which is a fund-raiser for junior golf in the county, and it is open to players aged 50 and up.
 
The series will feature two divisions for each event based on the combined ages of the playing partners.
 
Golfers play from the white tees (or equivalent) with participants 70 and over or who have a handicap of more than 9 able to play from the forward tees.
 
Gross and net prices will be available in each division.
 
The cost is $55 per event and includes a round of golf, food and prizes. Carts are available for an additional fee.
 
Golfers should call the pro shop at the course for that week's event no sooner than two weeks before the event to register.
 
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