Berkshires Beat: ABC Clothing Sale Donates $16,000 to Four Local Charities
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Bettering the community: The ABC Clothing Sale Steering Committee has distributed $16,000 in unrestricted grants from the proceeds of its big annual Clothing Sale in September and the numerous specialty and pop-up sales it has held throughout the year. "ABC" stands for "A Better Community," echoing the sale's commitment to recycling clothing and household linens, and their mission to benefit local charitable organizations that serve at-risk families and youth and address hunger, poverty and inequality in Northern Berkshire communities.
This year the money was distributed between the following four organizations, to support their work in the communities of Northern Berkshire: the Elizabeth Freeman Center, which provides life-saving, life renewing help to survivors of domestic and sexual violence and to their families; Louison House-Family Life Support Center, which provides transitional and permanent housing solutions and food for the homeless; Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative for the Friendship Center Food Pantry, which rovides food and personal care items every Wednesday to households in North Adams, Clarksburg and Florida; and the Williamstown Food Pantry at Sts. Patrick & Raphael Parish, which distributes food and other support to around four hundred families, with Williamstown as the major area served.
Collecting, sorting, and preparing clothing and linens for sale is a year-round operation, and volunteers are always needed and welcome. Donations of gently used clothing and linens are always appreciated and can be dropped off at the First Congregational Church in Williamstown. E-mail abcclothingsale413@gmail.com for more information; and check Facebook for updates.
Tree removal: Boy Scout Troop 88 of North Adams will hold its annual Christmas tree pickup fundraiser on Saturday, January 7, starting at 11:30 a.m. For $5, the scouts will pick up any tree in North Adams, Clarksburg or Williamstown. To schedule a tree for pickup, either email troop88.xmas.trees@gmail.com or call 413-346-3019 and leave your name, address, telephone number, and the date of pickup.
Trees should be free of ornaments, lights, and garland and at the curb by 11:30 a.m. on the day of pickup. The cost is $5 per tree, cash only. Proceeds will benefit Boy Scout Troop 88.
Good deeds: Members of the Drury High School Ambassadors, a student leadership group, presented a mountain of gifts to the Family Center, a program of Child Care of the Berkshires, recently. The students led the Holiday Gift Drive to benefit local children in need.
Drury students and staff demonstrated tremendous caring and generosity this holiday season with their donations of new toys, books, clothing and winter coats as they fulfilled Santa wishes for a number of children.
Students and faculty also donated dozens of homemade cookies to Berkshire Food Project for "goodie bags" to send home with their patrons.
Start spreading the news: A book by Dorothy Wang, associate professor of American Studies at Williams College, which was the winner of 2016 Best Book in Literary Criticism from the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS), was included in The New Yorker in their "The Books We Loved in 2016" list on Dec. 13.
In "Thinking Its Presence: Form, Race, and Subjectivity in Contemporary Asian American Poetry" (Stanford University Press, 2014), Wang argues that more attention should be paid to the literary properties of minority writing while also making the broad claim that aesthetic forms are inseparable from social, political, and historical contexts in all poetry — by minority and white poets alike. Wang argues for a rethinking of how poetry is read and discussed and how our unconscious racial views and assumptions guide our reception of poetry. Jim Cocola, writing this year in American Literary Scholarship, called Thinking Its Presence “a major event in the field,” noting that the book had inspired an annual national conference on race and creative writing. The book is currently being taught in undergraduate and graduate classes at various universities, including Harvard, Brown, and NYU.
In “The Books We Loved in 2016,” New Yorker contributor Ben Lerner said, "At the moment, I'm reading Dorothy Wang's 'Thinking Its Presence,' a powerful challenge to conventional ways of thinking (or not thinking) about race and poetry."
Wang, who is also affiliated with the Department of English Department, has taught at Williams for 10 years. She holds a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of California, Berkeley; a master’s degree in writing from Johns Hopkins University, a master’s degree in international affairs from Princeton University; and a bachelor’s degree from Duke University.
Get fit: By popular demand, Be Well Berkshires, Healthy Pittsfield Partnership and the Mayor's Fitness Challenge teams are pleased to announce the Mayor's Winter Fitness Challenge, which kicks off Jan. 1. The one-month individual challenge will encourage participants to eat healthy and move more during January; the individual that achieves the highest number of points will earn a prize. Registration is now open on www.berkshiremfc.com, and tracking begins at the start of the month. The site will also feature plenty of great offerings throughout the month of the challenge.
Visit the Pittsfield Mayor’s Fitness Challenge Facebook page for updates and surprise bonus points. For additional information, please contact Morgan Ovitsky at mkulchinsk@bhs1.org or 413-445-7069.
