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Gold medal winner shakes Superintendent James Brosnan's hand.
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McCann Students Successful in National Competition

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
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Metal Fabrication Instructor Glenn Andrews stands next to Benjamin Boisvert, Laura Heritage, Samantha Dorwin, and Brian Daugherty, and Skills USA Adviser Lisa Collins.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Four McCann students have returned from the Skills USA national competition with stories of success.

McCann Technical School graduate Benjamin Boisvert received a gold medal in sheet metal working during the week long Skills USA competition in Kansas City. Out of 30 students from throughout the country, Boisvert won gold, making him the best in the country.

A Readsboro, Vt., native, Boisvert said it was special to bring back a gold medal to his small hometown.

"I come from a town of less than 600 people and going out there where it is so huge, it is really special to bring something like this back to such small town," Boisvert said. "You are competing against others from huge areas … and it means more to the small community."

Boisvert said there were written and hands-on aspects to the competition. He said he was surprised how easily he was able to complete his challenge.

"What we actually had to make was stuff I had done in shop," he said. "So it wasn’t anything new."

Principal Justin Kratz said this speaks volumes about the instructors at McCann.

“It lets us know that what our instructors are doing is top shelf, and they are getting these kids ready for the best possible outcomes outside of school,” Kratz said. "They are preparing the kids for exactly what they need: to be out in the world working.”

Although Boisvert humbly accepted his award, Kratz reiterated the importance of it.  

"Thirty kids from 30 different states coming from high schools with 1,500 to 2,000 students ... to get it down to that 30 is pretty fierce," he said. "Metal fabrication and sheet metal working is a staple of every vocational, school so it’s not a selective program, so you have to be good."

Brian Dougherty, Laura Heritage and Samantha Dorwin also returned from Skills USA Nationals as state officials representing Massachusetts.

As officials, these three students had a different challenge at Skills USA: to meet with national officer candidates and elect the one they feel would best represent Skills USA as a whole.

"They are the ones meeting with CEOs, they are the ones meeting with government officials representing Skills USA, and careers in technical education, so it was important to us that we elected the best candidates," Dougherty said.

Dougherty said it was a "once in a life time experience," including doing things like having lunch with the CEO of Snap-On Tools. The students also had the chance to meet actor Mike Rowe, who used footage from Skills USA for his upcoming television show on CNN.

The weeklong event was held at Bartle Hall. Six-thousand students from across the country competed against each other. Kratz said the scale of the competition was massive.

"You have essentially something like the Boston Garden … filled with a huge stage and huge flat screens," he said. "The venue is 16 football fields long; you look in there and the Mack Trucks that are parked in there look like matchbox cars."

Heritage was impressed by the size of the completion and the professionalism of the competitors.

"It was just so unique because it was so humongous and so broad, and we met … kids from everywhere in the country," Heritage said. "The biggest thing I took away was the immense leadership of all of the high school students; it is just crazy to see how kids my age took charge."

Dorwin agreed that it was amazing to see so many different people.

"I thought it was really cool to meet people from all over the place and kind of see the difference between all of the states," Dorwin said.

Kratz said that as a state, Massachusetts "cleaned house." He said Massachusetts finished second in the country right behind Florida.

Both Dougherty and Boisvert have graduated from McCann. Dougherty plans to attend UMass Amherst to study Biology now Boisvert works for Adams Plumbing and Heating. Both Heritage and Dorwin will return as officials next year.

All in all, the students and faculty wish to get more students involved in Skills USA and add to McCann’s success.

"Not a lot of people know about Skills USA outside of the organization, and we get asked about it all of the time," Heritage said. "You don’t know how to answer it because it really is being involved as closely as we are and you can’t even bring words to the experience, and it really is life-changing. I am so glad I am involved, and I am so glad I picked this school."


Tags: McCann,   SkillsUSA,   

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Clarksburg Sees Race for Select Board Seat

CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The town will see a three-way race for a seat on the Select Board in May. 
 
Colton Andrews, Seth Alexander and Bryana Malloy returned papers by Wednesday's deadline to run for the three-year term vacated by Jeffrey Levanos. 
 
Andrews ran unsuccessfully for School Committee and is former chairman of the North Adams Housing Authority, on which he was a union representative. He is also president of the Pioneer Valley Building Trades Council.
 
Malloy and Alexander are both newcomers to campaigning. Malloy is manager of industrial relations for the Berkshire Workforce Board and Alexander is a resident of Gates Avenue. 
 
Alexander also returned papers for several other offices, including School Committee, moderator, library trustee and the five-year seat on the Planning Board. He took out papers for War Memorial trustee and tree warden but did not return them and withdrew a run for Board of Health. 
 
He will face off in the three-year School Committee seat against incumbent Cynthia Brule, who is running for her third term, and fellow newcomer Bonnie Cunningham for library trustee. 
 
Incumbent Ronald Boucher took out papers for a one-year term as moderator but did not return them. He was appointed by affirmation in 2021 when no won ran and accepted the post again last year as a write-in.
 
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