image description — Friendship Center volunteer Erik Wobus, left, Doppelgangers President Robert Donnelly, Director of Food Distribution Mark Lincourt, Doppelgangers Vice President Chip Beckwith and volunteer Fran Morandi were at the center on Eagle Street.

North Adams Motorcycle Club Aids Friendship Center

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
10:45PM / Wednesday, November 14, 2012Print Story | Email Story

Mark Lincourt helped carry the donations into the Eagle Street center.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Doppelgangers motorcycle club surprised the Friendship Center with a pickup truck full of donations Wednesday evening after collecting them from the area over the past two weeks.

According to club President Robert Donnelly, the group put boxes and posters in various local businesses and its clubhouse on Oct. 12 to collect food and clothing.

On Wednesday, Donnelly and Vice President Claude "Chip" Beckwith dropped off three boxes of food and multiple bags of clothing, enough to fill the truck bed.

In total, 182 pounds of clothing and blankets and 123 pounds of food.

"We want to be good neighbors," Beckwith said. He said the group had been looking for ways to help the community.

The Friendship Center has picked up where the Northern Berkshire Food Pantry left off when it closed two years ago. Entering its second holiday season, Director of Food Distribution Mark Lincourt said it now serves more than 1,100 families throughout North Berkshire.

The new pantry was started on Eagle Street by the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative and received its first donation in February 2011. Lincourt said the center's operations have grown tremendously in the last two years.

The volunteer group distributes food to families in need. The Doppelgangers' clubhouse is in the Crystal Hard Hat's former location on Union Street. The club is private — with about 15-members — for owners of Harley-Davidson and Indian motorcycles.

Tags: donations, food pantry, motorcycle club,

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Northern Berkshire United Way: War and Peace

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
09:38PM / Saturday, February 28, 2026

Northern Berkshire United Way is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year. Each month, we will take a look back at the agency's milestones over the decades. This first part looks at its successes and challenges during the war years.

The Community Chest started the decade on the upswing but ended with a decline in fundraising. A bright spot was its establishment of new agencies to help the citizens of North Adams and Clarksburg.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The North Adams Community Chest ended its first decade on an upswing, even as the clouds were darkening over Europe.

But what goes up, must eventually come down.

The 1940 campaign drive again set a goal of $39,600 and volunteers toted up $23,000 at the first meeting.

James Hunter Machine was the first to attain 100 percent enrollment with annual gift of $6.13 per person for a total of $1,275. Some 200 businesses and organizations hit their red feather level of 100 percent, including all of the schools as well as State Teachers College.

The litany of businesses and organizations included long-gone establishments such as Simmons Funeral Home, Spofford Motors, McCann Ice Cream Co., C.H. Cutting, West End Market, Apothecary Hall, Florini's Italian Garden, and Pizzi's, along with still existing enterprises like Whitney's Beverage Shop, Cascade Paper and Mount Williams Greenhouse.

The now annual dinner was served by the Ladies Aid Society of First Congregational at the YMCA, and attendees were entertained by singers from the Advent Christian Church, directed by the Rev. Martin Ball and accompanied by his wife on the piano. "Assisting in useful capacities" were YMCA junior members Howard Goodermote, Roy Modlinger, Fred Myers, Norman Remillard, George Grenier, Wallace Konopka and Anthony Pessolano.

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