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Treasurer, MSBA Director Present Award to First-Grader At Crosby

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — First-grader Esha Zahid won a statewide competition for designing her ideal school but she and her family were unable to attend a ceremony at the State House. So on Friday, state officials brought the ceremony to her.

Treasurer Steven Grossman and Jack McCarthy, executive director of the Massachusetts School Building Authority, visited Esha's class at Crosby Elementary School on Friday to deliver her winnings. The competition asked  first-graders from all over the state to draw and write an essay describing their ideal school.

Esha was picked as one of 12 regional winners in the seventh annual competition. Drawing a castle and explaining that her school has "good friends, the playground is fun to play in and the lunch that the lunch lady give us is very yummy," earned Esha a $100 savings bond from Sovereign Bank.

"Because she wasn't able to be in Boston for our special presentation, we decided to bring all of us here to say thank you to her," Grossman told the first-graders.

McCarthy and Grossman are in charge with the state funds to build new schools. The city has been making a pitch to renovate or build a new Taconic High School. The city still needs feasibility studies to be completed before the MSBA invites the city into the program, which provide most of the funding needed to complete a project.

Striking Out Cancer in Berkshires Holds Sunday Party Before June 27 Games

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires.com Sports
10:53AM / Monday, June 15, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Striking out Cancer in the Berkshires has been bringing smiles for half a decade.

 

This year, it also is bringing Smiley.

 

A day of community baseball and softball games that act as a fund-raiser for the Jimmy Fund is the brainchild of Joe DiCicco, who has expanded the event’s footprint over the years and seen a steady growth in money raised as a result.

 

This year’s games are scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on June 27 on Buddy Pellerin Field at Clapp Park.

 

But the festivities begin this Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Sideline Saloon on Fenn Street, where DiCicco invites families to come down, free of charge, to take photos with a Boston Red Sox World Series Trophy and meet Boston mascot Wally the Green Monster and Smiley, the mascot of the Triple-A Worcester Red Sox.

 

“It’s just a little way to give back to the community to start the week,” DiCicco said. “Last year, we had the trophy for the first time, and they want to bring it back, so that’s a good thing. Wally is different, and so is Smiley.”

 

What has not changed is DiCicco’s dedication to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Jimmy Fund, inspired by Einar Gustafson, a child who beat cancer with the help of Dr. Sidney Farber in 1948 and shared his story with the world under the name Jimmy to protect his anonymity.