Rainbow Seniors Hires New Director

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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Rainbow Seniors of Berkshire County has named Kenneth Mercure as its new director. Rainbow Seniors is the county's social and support network for LGBTQ elders.

Mercure, a Berkshire County native, was the driving force behind the Berkshire Pride festival and a lead organizer of the Berkshire Transgender Day of Remembrance in 2017. A natural organizer, his earliest effort was the founding of an LGBTQ youth program in Great Barrington – at age 15! The group flourished for two years.

Mercure began working as a Lyme disease community organizer and patient advocate in 2010 and went on to found the Lyme Alliance of the Berkshires, which holds monthly meetings and workshops. He works directly with those affected to help them educate themselves and their families and to guide them in the direction of the care they need. To date he has moderated 70+ meetings and organized numerous public education events.

"I first became aware of Kenneth last year when asked whether Rainbow Seniors was planning a countywide Pride celebration," said Ed Sedarbaum, founder of Rainbow Seniors. "We weren't, so Kenneth assembled a large and enthusiastic volunteer team and they created one – last June's successful Pride Festival in the Pittsfield Common, attended by over 500 diverse people. It was a wonderful example of inclusivity that helped give the emerging LGBTQ community a voice. Berkshire Pride has since grown to be more than just a festival and is now working to help grow the community."


For the first two months, Sedarbaum and Mercure will work as co-directors, after which Mercure will assume sole leadership of the two-year-old organization.

"I am honored to be following in the footsteps of Ed Sedarbaum, and plan to dedicate my work towards preserving the vision upon which the organization was founded and expanding the services and programming available to LGBTQ elders in Berkshire County," Mercure said.

The membership of Rainbow Seniors will formally greet Mercure at their Holiday Potluck on Dec. 19.

Rainbow Seniors is funded through Title III of the Older Americans Act. Elder Services of Berkshire County helps guide the program and the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition serves as the agency’s fiscal agent.

 


Tags: LGBTQ,   rainbow seniors,   

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North Adams Regional Reopens With Ribbon-Cutting Celebration

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

BHS President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz welcomes the gathering to the celebration of the hospital's reopening 10 years to the day it closed. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The joyful celebration on Thursday at North Adams Regional Hospital was a far cry from the scene 10 years ago when protests and tears marked the facility's closing
 
Hospital officials, local leaders, medical staff, residents and elected officials gathered under a tent on the campus to mark the efforts over the past decade to restore NARH and cut the ribbon officially reopening the 136-year-old medical center. 
 
"This hospital under previous ownership closed its doors. It was a day that was full of tears, anger and fear in the Northern Berkshire community about where and how residents would be able to receive what should be a fundamental right for everyone — access to health care," said Darlene Rodowicz, president and CEO of Berkshire Health Systems. 
 
"Today the historic opportunity to enhance the health and wellness of Northern Berkshire community is here. And we've been waiting for this moment for 10 years. It is the key to keeping in line with our strategic plan which is to increase access and support coordinated county wide system of care." 
 
Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, under the BHS umbrella, purchased the campus and affiliated systems when Northern Berkshire Healthcare declared bankruptcy and closed on March 28, 2014. NBH had been beset by falling admissions, reductions in Medicare and Medicaid payments, and investments that had gone sour leaving it more than $30 million in debt. 
 
BMC was able to reopen the ER as an emergency satellite facility and slowly restored and enhanced medical services including outpatient surgery, imaging, dialysis, pharmacy and physician services. 
 
But it would take a slight tweak in the U.S. Health and Human Services' regulations — thank to U.S. Rep. Richie Neal — to bring back inpatient beds and resurrect North Adams Regional Hospital 
 
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