Local Grange Recognizes Makers of 'Shawls of Love'

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
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Beverly Herzog, left, Sweet Brook activities coordinator Fern Tucker, Scott Bannin, Nancy Lescarbeau and Linnea Nelson.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Two local people are providing some handmade comfort to the population of Sweet Brook Care Centers.

Members of the local Grange, a national organization that promotes agricultural pursuits, met to recognize the kindness of the two residents who have used knitting and crocheting to overcome their own challenges.

Scott Bannin and Beverly Herzog have made a total of 27 shawls and lap robes with the help of Grange members to hand out to the Sweet Brook community.

Bannin, a veteran living at Turner House, said the shawls were made with "lots of love." He said he used to visit his mother, who has Alzheimer's, and was struck by the sadness in the other patients faces.

"When I went to see her, I would see the people in the wheelchairs with no expressions on their faces. Nobody was there to see them; no parents, no grandchildren, no nothing," Bannin said. "When I made one for my mother, the nurses said 'I think some of these patients would love one of those,' so I said, 'OK.'"

Bannin's mother and grandmother showed him how to crochet when he was a young man. He said he can make them quickly now and is glad he could help people.



"I asked 'how many do you want' and it only took me two or three days to make all of these so I was going as fast as I could," he said. "I did it because they needed it so I said, 'why not?' "

Beverly Herzog was born with cerebral palsy and said she knits to help with her physical therapy. She said her mother and grandmother also showed her how to knit when she was a girl.

"My grandmother did crochet, but I can't do that because you have to use both hands, so she showed me how to knit and that's how I got started," Herzog said. "Women would get together on certain Sundays of the month. They would knit and crochet while the guys played cards. That's how it was, that's how we got this started."

Grange member Nancy Lescarbeau thanked Herzog and Bannin for their efforts during the chapter's monthly potluck dinner meeting last week at Sheep Hill, the Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation.

"Some of the churches make prayer shawls, but I am calling these shawls 'shawls of love,' because that is what they are doing," Lescarbeau said. "They are giving their love to you folks, and the folks that will be wearing them in the nursing home."


Tags: grange,   knit,crochet,   nursing home,   recognition event,   

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Mount Greylock School Committee Votes Slight Increase to Proposed Assessments

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to slightly increase the assessment to the district's member towns from the figures in the draft budget presented by the administration.
 
The School Committee opted to lower the use of Mount Greylock's reserve account by $70,000 and, instead, increase by that amount the share of the fiscal year 2025 operating budget shared proportionally by Lanesborough and Williamstown taxpayers.
 
The budget prepared by the administration and presented to the School Committee at its annual public hearing on Thursday included $665,000 from the district's Excess and Deficiency account, the equivalent of a municipal free cash balance, an accrual of lower-than-anticipated expenses and higher-than-anticipated revenue in any given year.
 
That represented a 90 percent jump from the $350,000 allocated from E&D for fiscal year 2024, which ends on June 30. And, coupled with more robust use of the district's tuition revenue account (7 percent more in FY25) and School Choice revenue (3 percent more), the draw down on E&D is seen as a stopgap measure to mitigate a spike in FY25 expenses and an unsustainable budgeting strategy long term, administrators say.
 
The budget passed by the School Committee on Thursday continues to rely more heavily on reserves than in years past, but to a lesser extent than originally proposed.
 
Specifically, the budget the panel approved includes a total assessment to Williamstown of $13,775,336 (including capital and operating costs) and a total assessment to Lanesborough of $6,425,373.
 
As a percentage increase from the FY24 assessments, that translates to a 3.90 percent increase to Williamstown and a 3.38 percent increase to Lanesborough.
 
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