Annual Conference Brings County Teens Together

By Nichole Dupont
Special to iBerkshires
03:34AM / Friday, April 09, 2010

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Photos courtesy NBCC More than 100 teenagers across the county  have signed up for this weekend's fourth annual '411 in the 413.' Above, some of the youth who attended last year.

BECKET, Mass. — Berkshire County can be a beautiful place to raise a family. Small school districts and sprawling woods and countryside provide an idyllic setting for family life in the country.

But rural living isn't ideal for everyone, especially area teens who are looking for connections and opportunity. That is why, for the fourth consecutive year, the Berkshire Youth Development Project, a collaborative effort of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, the Pittsfield Prevention Partnership and the Railroad Street Youth Project, is hosting its annual "411 in the 413" Youth Conference beginning this morning, April 9, through Saturday, April 10, at Becket Chimney Corners YMCA Camp.

According to conference organizer and Monument Mountain high school senior Nadia Redel, this year's conference is going to be filled with fun and opportunity for area teens.

"There's a lot going on in Becket," she said. "A lot of the workshops and organizers just happened to be in the right place at the right time. We have a list of enthusiastic volunteers, and that list keeps growing every year."

This year's workshops include violence prevention, tips on travelling on the cheap, post-high school planning, forest management and environmental responsibility, the art of improv, drumming and many others. According to Redel, there will be some returning celebrities as well.

"Senator Downing is coming back to do his 'hot political topics' workshop. He's done it in the past and it's been great for the youth here," she said of the Pittsfield Democrat.

State Sen. Benjamin B. Downing's workshop (and others) will be preceded by the keynote address. Regi Wingo, one of the founders of the Railroad Street Youth Project, who now works for the Elizabeth Freeman Center, will give his take on what it's like to be young and restless in the sticks.

"He grew up in the area. He has a lot of good things to say about it, he knows what we're going through," Redel said.

With more than 100 teens from 15 area schools, the conference promises to be the common denominator of Berkshire youth. Suzannah Grant, a student at Drury High School in North Adams and intern/coordinator for the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, said she is looking forward to the conference as a way to meet other teens.

Drury High student Suzannah Grant said the event is designed to give all students opportunities.

"Don't be fooled by the word conference," she said. "This is designed to give everyone as many opportunities as possible, both for college bound students and students who are pursuing something different in their lives."

Providing opportunity and outreach to area teens is exactly what Kate Merrigan, a coordinator at NBCC had in mind when she first set out to organize a conference.

"I would take students to regional conferences outside of the area and they would meet cool people and get jazzed up," she said. "But then on the drive home they would ask 'why can't we do this in the Berkshires?' That's when this idea bloomed."

Over the past four years, Merrigan said she has noticed a lot of strong relationships forming, especially over fireside chats between kids and adults, and teachers and students.

"We're seeing it come together. We want to get people together more frequently in a non-competitive space," she said. "We want to provide working relationships and friendships in the Berkshires."