Danforths leave legacy of caring at ABC

By Linda CarmanPrint Story | Email Story
Dana and Judy Danforth at their Home. (Photo By Linda Carman)
WILLIAMSTOWN – Dana and Judy Danforth are retiring after 23 years as resident directors for the Greylock A Better Chance (ABC) program, years in which they provided encouragement, guidance, patience, structure and above all, friendship to successive waves of teenagers in the ABC House at 58 Hoxsey St. The youngsters were, to a greater or lesser extent, contending with not just the turmoil of the teens, but sometimes with devastating homesickness for their families, and longing for their inner-city neighborhoods. The Danforths’ departure has prompted outpourings of appreciation and recollections from many graduates of the highly competitive program. “Dana and Judy provided that family atmosphere. They were like our parents. That’s how I and my close friends view them,” said Cirron Ray, a 1996 graduate who graduated from Colgate University and is now a wealth manager for a private bank in New York City. “They gave us that stability and guidance. It was kind of a weird mix. They were authority figures and also friends, and I know I can call on Dana and Judy today, and they would always help me out. They’ve always been supportive.” Sean Dent, ethics attorney with the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C., said, “You always knew Dana and Judy expected you to succeed. They gave you that confidence that you were going to do well, that you were going on to graduate. That made me as a student more determined to succeed. They invested in you.” He added, “The program is quite competitive, but still, they took a chance on you, and it was time for you to live up to expectations, show them they made the right decision. At a young age, that’s a wonderful thing. “I love both Dana and Judy. Never mind hard shoes to fill. It’s just going to be impossible.” Dent recently donated $300 to the Greylock ABC for, he said, “providing me with the education and attention that have enabled me to accomplish all that I have done and continues to serve me well.” Ray and Dent are among more than 50 students who have graduated from Mount Greylock Regional High School through the ABC program, which brings academically promising, primarily minority students, mostly from inner-city neighborhoods, to more academically rigorous high schools. Dent went on to graduate from Allegheny College, Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law, and a two-year clerkship with the Appellate Court, the highest in the District of Columbia. He said Greylock ABC is listed on his resume and has always come up in interviews. “I left home at 14,” he said. “It wasn’t easy. I called home after the second week and told my mother I wanted to come home. But I learned to love the program and made great friends. That’s the amazing thing about Dana and Judy. We were teenagers, and Dana and Judy were charged with the responsibility for us. One teenager is enough for most parents. I remember coming in a little late, after curfew. They were always so wonderful in how they dealt with those issues. They were just so patient. They were not our parents, but they had a parental role. They were our guardians, but they managed to be our friends. We could confide in them.” Now, Dent said, he can appreciate the challenges the Danforths faced and is awed by their accomplishments. “It’s incredible to think of how many kids they’ve left their mark on in a positive way, and they left you with the feeling you could always contact them,” he said. “My first reaction on hearing they were leaving was, Oh my goodness, how will they replace them? On another note, they were wonderful role models for all of us in the house on how husbands and wives should treat one another. I remember their daily walks together. They’d walk off holding hands.” The Danforths said they consider themselves fortunate in that they learned as much or more from the students than the students did from them. “For 23 years, we have been minorities in our own household, and, in a fond way, our eyes have been opened,” said Dana Danforth. “Probably our greatest gratification is not while the kids are here, God bless ’em, but mostly from hearing from them when they’re successful in their college and careers. They come back to Williamstown, or call, or sends cards and say, ‘We miss you guys.’ That’s as close as we get to validation of the program over the years we’ve been here.” James G. Kolesar, co-president of the Greylock ABC board, said the challenges of living with eight teenagers requires a very intense commitment, and it’s an enormous tribute to the Danforths that they stayed at it for so long. “They’re unbelievable,” Kolesar said. “Twenty-three years is a record quite unlikely to be broken. They’re a very important part of the Greylock ABC program. Setting a strong foundation at the house enables our students to grow academically and personally. And they do hear back from graduates who express enormous gratitude that they admit they weren’t always able to express at the time.” The local organization raises about $80,000 locally – and has a $300,000 endowment – through direct mail, an annual clothing sale run by Carolyn Behr, an annual plant sale run by Philip Smith and a lodging service run by Behr and Gay Klaus Scarborough. Greylock ABC is advertising for resident directors, but, Kolesar said, “We don’t expect to find someone who will stay for 20 years.” Steven Rogers, who serves on the board of directors of the national ABC program, visited the Danforths Saturday. “I expressed sincerest gratitude and appreciation for the wonderful job they had done,” Rogers said. “They had helped change the lives of all the students fortunate enough to be in the Greylock ABC program.” Rogers recalled that one of the Greylock ABC students once told the Danforths, “The only reason you’re doing this is because you want to go to heaven.” “I told them this is one of the means to go to heaven, and you have done it magnificently,” said Rogers, an ABC graduate from a Pennsylvania program who as a Williams College student in 1978 served as resident director at the Greylock ABC house. He now teaches at the Kellogg School at Northwestern University and is a recipient of Williams’ Bicentennial Medal. Cleston Lord, now a New York lawyer, drove up from the city on Saturday so his wife, Tracie, could meet the Danforths before they left. “If you can imagine a young kid, leaving his family, coming from an urban environment to an environment different in all respects, Dana and Judy eased the transition,” Lord said. “They were our surrogate parents, and their love was not rationed. They opened up their hearts and accepted us as their children and tried to rear us as such. And having Dana at school meant that if there were issues during the day you could go see him.” Larry Mason, an investment counselor in New York, said the Danforths “definitely played mother father figures.” Mason, a football standout both at Mount Greylock and later at Wesleyan University, said, “They were wonderful in helping me adapt to a new environment. I came as a freshman from the Bronx, and it was culture shock. Dana and I had a particularly strong relationship.” While Mason didn’t need too much help with academics, he appreciates the life lessons he learned from the Danforths. And when Wesleyan played Williams, the Danforths came to cheer him on. The Danforths, whose own three children grew up in the ABC House, are moving to Maine, the home state they left 38 years ago when Dana Danforth took a post as French teacher at Mount Greylock. That job later gave him 24-hour-a-day access to ABC students, so he could follow up on any problems that might have arisen during the school day. “I had the advantage of basically being with the kids 24 hours a day until two years ago when I retired [from teaching],” he said. “Judy and I are not drill sergeants. We think of ourselves as parents rather than as study hall monitors. If you look at our background, we have absolutely no business being here. We’re from upstate rural Maine, where there were no minorities.” Judy Danforth said, “I don’t think we looked at the students as minorities, just as kids, and we lived together as a family.” Not that all was smooth sailing. Once, a pair of girls announced that if the Danforths were going to be there in the fall, the girls would not return. But they did. And years later, one of those girls called to say, “Dana, I love you.” The Danforths said they had a clearer view of racism than they might have had otherwise. “Yes, there is racism at Mount Greylock, but I think there is less of it today, and it’s probably less overt,” Dana Danforth said. “For 20 years, Judy and I have been taking kids shopping, and I remember in a sporting goods store in Pittsfield the store clerk followed them around.” Regardless, he said, “For the two of us, this has been a very rewarding experience. There have been some bumps in the road, but nothing we’d regret or do otherwise. We just have thanks to the students and for the help we’ve gotten from so many people.”
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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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