Higher Ground Seeks Volunteers To Help Spruces Residents

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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Tropical Storm Irene caused massive flooding at the Spruces Mobile Home Park. Higher Ground was formed to help the residents get back on their feet.
Updated: Friday, Dec. 23 at 4:30 p.m.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Higher Ground is seeking volunteer case managers to help displaced families from the Spruces Mobile Home Park.

Higher Ground was formed to help Spruces residents who were displaced from their homes because of flooding from Tropical Storm Irene. Case managers will help those residents navigate the federal Emergency Management Agency, state building codes, lodging and personal placement processes as well as provide emotional support and intervention.

"We really see ourselves as partners with the people," Susan Puddester, who is heading the case manager effort, said on Friday. "There are still a lot of people that have not made permanent arrangements."

The case managers, who will work in pairs, meet with a case management supervisor and are encouraged to attend Higher Ground's weekly meetings but there is no minimum amount of hours expected nor is any prior experience needed. The managers will be the go-to person to for needs - both minor and major.

"You can take on as many cases as you want," Puddester said. "It's really even hard to say how much time [a case] was take... sometimes the residents just need one thing."


Higher Ground already has about 10 case managers currently working with residents at the Spruces and Puddester said she hopes to double that number with eight to 10 more.

The managers will be dispatched based on referrals to Higher Ground. Residents who would like to work with a case manager would need to contact Higher Ground.

While the group has primarily been involved with the residents at the Spruces, the case managers will work with anybody in the Northern Berkshires who suffered loses from the storm. The manager will be attend a free disaster relief training in Bennington, Vt. on Jan. 9 and Jan. 10 to learn about the resources and how to understand the storm victim's struggles.

To volunteer contact Susan Puddester at 410-562-6022.


Tags: FEMA,   Irene,   Spruces,   

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WCMA: 'Cracking the Code on Numerology'

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) opens a new exhibition, "Cracking the Cosmic Code: Numerology in Medieval Art."
 
The exhibit opened on March 22.
 
According to a press release: 
 
The idea that numbers emanate sacred significance, and connect the past with the future, is prehistoric and global. Rooted in the Babylonian science of astrology, medieval Christian numerology taught that God created a well-ordered universe. Deciphering the universe's numerical patterns would reveal the Creator's grand plan for humanity, including individual fates. 
 
This unquestioned concept deeply pervaded European cultures through centuries. Theologians and lay people alike fervently interpreted the Bible literally and figuratively via number theory, because as King Solomon told God, "Thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight" (Wisdom 11:22). 
 
"Cracking the Cosmic Code" explores medieval relationships among numbers, events, and works of art. The medieval and Renaissance art on display in this exhibition from the 5th to 17th centuries—including a 15th-century birth platter by Lippo d'Andrea from Florence; a 14th-century panel fragment with courtly scenes from Palace Curiel de los Ajos, Valladolid, Spain; and a 12th-century wall capital from the Monastery at Moutiers-Saint-Jean—reveal numerical patterns as they relate to architecture, literature, gender, and timekeeping. 
 
"There was no realm of thought that was not influenced by the all-consuming belief that all things were celestially ordered, from human life to stones, herbs, and metals," said WCMA Assistant Curator Elizabeth Sandoval, who curated the exhibition. "As Vincent Foster Hopper expounds, numbers were 'fundamental realities, alive with memories and eloquent with meaning.' These artworks tease out numerical patterns and their multiple possible meanings, in relation to gender, literature, and the celestial sphere. 
 
"The exhibition looks back while moving forward: It relies on the collection's strengths in Western medieval Christianity, but points to the future with goals of acquiring works from the global Middle Ages. It also nods to the history of the gallery as a medieval period room at this pivotal time in WCMA's history before the momentous move to a new building," Sandoval said.
 
Cracking the Cosmic Code runs through Dec. 22.
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