Math Major Wins MCLA's '29 Who Shine' Award

MCLA junior Kayla LaVoice stands with with Spencer Moser, director of the Center for Service and Citizenship, in Boston, where she received the '29 Who Shine' award for 2017.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' recipient of the "29 Who Shine" award is junior Kayla LaVoice, a math major from Springfield who is involved with numerous community service activities both on campus and throughout the Northern Berkshires.

In addition to two years of service to the Adams Youth Center program as a mentor and a tutor, LaVoice is the creator of the "Pathways to College" program, which sends MCLA students to Drury High School in North Adams to help the younger students with professional development and college access-related activities.

At MCLA, LaVoice has served as a Lead Academy participant and mentor, a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Academy mentor, a resident advisor, and treasurer of the Student Government Association (SGA).

North Adams Hopes to Transform Y Into Community Recreation Center

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:19AM / Thursday, May 02, 2024

Mayor Jennifer Macksey updates members of the former YMCA on the status of the roof project and plans for reopening. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city has plans to keep the former YMCA as a community center.

 

"The city of North Adams is very committed to having a recreation center not only for our youth but our young at heart," Mayor Jennifer Macksey said to the applause of some 50 or more YMCA members on Wednesday. "So we are really working hard and making sure we can have all those touch points."

 

The fate of the facility attached to Brayton School has been in limbo since the closure of the pool last year because of structural issues and the departure of the Berkshire Family YMCA in March.

 

The mayor said the city will run some programming over the summer until an operator can be found to take over the facility. It will also need a new name. 

 

"The YMCA, as you know, has departed from our facilities and will not return to our facility in the form that we had," she said to the crowd in Council Chambers. "And that's been mostly a decision on their part. The city of North Adams wanted to really keep our relationship with the Y, certainly, but they wanted to be a Y without borders, and we're going a different direction."

 

The pool was closed in March 2023 after the roof failed a structural inspection. Kyle Lamb, owner of Geary Builders, the contractor on the roof project, said the condition of the laminated beams was far worse than expected. 

 

"When we first went into the Y to do an inspection, we certainly found a lot more than we anticipated. The beams were actually rotted themselves on the bottom where they have to sit on the walls structurally," he said. "The beams actually, from the weight of snow and other things, actually crushed themselves eight to 11 inches. They were actually falling apart. ...