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The Maple Grove Civic Club celebrates its decades as a place for citizens to hash out issues.

Adams' Maple Grove Civic Club Turns 80

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
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ADAMS, Mass. — After 80 years, the Maple Grove Civic Club remains an important assembly for political and civic action.
 
The club reconvened Sunday after its summer break and heard from member and local historian Eugene Michalenko, who gave a presentation on the club's history.
 
Michalenko said Maple Grove is an area near Grove and Quality streets that dates to 1829. He said it is the oldest named section in town.
 
"Before there was Zylonite, there was Maple Grove … it may have just been a stand of maple trees there," he said.  
 
Michalenko said there was already a mill in Maple Grove at this time and when the railroad came through in 1846, a second mill was built.
 
"Twenty years later it had become an industrial village … It even had its own train stop," he said. "If you were coming from Pittsfield to Adams, you could get off in Maple Grove."
 
Michalenko said the railroad meant big changes in Adams and around this same time immigrants began to pour into town from Ireland, Canada, Germany, Poland, Italy, Syria, and Lebanon.
 
"There were 80 years of people coming to Adams from other countries … so Adams had this huge population of immigrants," he said. "Around the turn of the century, there were like five languages preached from pulpits."
 
Michalenko said 80 percent of the town's population by the 1930s was either foreign-born or children of immigrants.
 
Up to this point, the mill owners ran the town and decided how money was spent but by 1920, many of these wealthy mill owners were passing on and the mills were no longer locally owned.
 
"By the 1920s, they were all dead so there was this power vacuum here and no one knew who was going to run the town," he said. "The mills were now owned by people out of town."
 
With the Great Depression in full swing, many clubs popped up representing different groups and immigrants. The American Naturalization Association was set up to help Polish people become naturalized and turned into the East Side Citizens Club. The Caledonian Club was established in Renfrew to represent the Scottish.
 
Among these many clubs was the Maple Grove Civic Club, founded by mostly French Canadians who lived around Commercial, Elm and Temple streets.
 
Michalenko said these clubs were essentially voting blocs that wanted to make sure a person who represented them was on the select board.
 
One major reason for this was to make sure the right police were appointed.
 
"Every year, the selectmen appointed certain cops," he said. "So if you wanted your favorite cop to be on patrol you had to make sure your man was elected."
 
He said along with addressing corruption and police accountability, people wanted police officers who would be more lenient with them when it came to the most committed crime back in the 1930s: drunkenness.  
 
"In those days, they could arrest you for just being drunk so you could imagine the conversation if they saw you drunk," he said. "They could say two things, 'go home to your wife and kids and sleep it off' or 'come with me you are going o the police station.'" 
 
Michalenko said many of these clubs disbanded when World War II hit and as society changed, but in 1964 the Maple Grove Civic Club was reborn when a bunch of men in that neighborhood re-established the group.
 
Part of the reason they reformed was because of the proposed tramway up Mount Greylock.
 
"This was around the time the tramway was being discussed … and because we had taken quite a few hits in the newspaper from Williamstown people who opposed it," he said. "They were saying some nasty things about Adams."
 
During this time, Bernie Powers was the president of the club and Ed Hakes, Buck Morey, and Earl Hartwig were among the membership.
 
Michalenko said the group started out with around 80 members that met at the Commercial Street Café where they addressed issues in town and wrote letters to the selectmen.
 
Among their early concerns was a broken bench on the Commercial Street bridge, a railroad crossing on Center Street, the school budget, and the sandbank across the street from the Memorial Building.
 
Michalenko said the group feared the sandbank was a danger to children and sent pictures to the bishop in Springfield.
 
The club eventually outgrew the Commercial Street Café and moved to what was then Saints Hall on Summer Street. The club eventually moved to the Polish National Alliance on Victory Street, where it holds meetings to this day.
 
By the 1980s, the group had nearly 500 members.
 
Michalenko said the group continued to be vocal about politics and held political forums, which it still does during annual elections. In 1975, it vehemently opposed switching to a charter form of government. 
 
"They sent a letter and showed up at meetings. They were opposed to a town administrator and a professional form of government," he said. "They thought the selectmen could handle it."
 
Michalenko said he first was involved with the club in the early 2000s when he was asked to give a presentation.
 
"I had this 45-minute slide presentation and … 35 minutes in Ed Hakes came up to me and said, 'Hey Al,' he always called me Al because he didn't know my name, and said 'the guys are getting hungry could you crank this out quick.' " 
 
Michalenko recalled another especially contentious meeting when the group held a vote to see if women should be allowed into the club.
 
"I remember that one," he said. "We lost a few members after that."
 
The club also has supported other groups in town and has given money and held fundraisers to support the Police Athletic League, the Alert Hose Company, the Adams Youth Center, and other youth athletic programs.
 
The club also serves as an educational tool in the community by bringing in professionals to give presentations on subjects such as opioid abuse and population decline in Berkshire County.
 
In more recent years, the club has had a hard time retaining membership and bringing on new members. Monthly meetings often have no more than 20 people in attendance.
 
One of the nearly 15 members at the meeting Sunday asked Michalenko why he thought membership has declined.
 
Michalenko attributed the sharp membership decline to the rise of social media, but thought that also has diluted the power of citizen groups. 
 
"This used to be a forum where people used to talk about issues in town and now with the internet, Facebook, and Adams Informed, our role has been taken away," he said. "This is where people used to come and bitch and it is unconstructive to do that online. There is no one to write a letter or get things done. ...
 
"Actions speak louder than words."

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Hoosac Valley High School is Moving and Shaking

There have been some major shifts within the Hoosac Valley Regional School District recently, all of which have focused on enhancing the student experience to make it a place where ALL students can find their path.
 
In 2023, Hoosac Valley High School was designated an Innovation Pathway School by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and has since restructured the Program of Studies, utilized creative scheduling, and expanded internship opportunities. Part of this transformation includes participating in a "Portrait of a Graduate" cohort alongside four other Berkshire County schools to determine a collective vision for student success, in partnership with the BARR Foundation.
 
The Innovation Pathways at HVHS are designed to give students coursework and experience in a specific high-demand industry, such as technology, engineering, healthcare, or life sciences. Currently, Biomedical Science & Healthcare and Environmental Studies have received official state IP designation. In addition to the IP designated pathways, HVHS offers programs in Engineering & Technology, Business & Entrepreneurship, Arts & Entertainment, Education, and Sports Medicine. The result is that students have an opportunity for a transformative experience – enabling them to build essential skills, gain awareness of future career opportunities, and make informed choices about post-secondary education in promising fields.
 
Principal Colleen Byrd notes, "What makes our program special is that entry into the Pathway of your choice allows a student to access Advanced Placement and dual enrollment college courses, as well as internships in the community to set them up for success after high school."
 
The Portrait of a Graduate initiative consists of a team of Hoosac educators and students who exemplify the essential skills, practices, and beliefs that define learning experiences across the district. They work to outline the competencies, values, skills, and knowledge that define our vision for student success – keeping in mind that not every student's pathway will look the same. The District's goal is to ensure that all students graduate as responsible people, prepared individuals, lifelong learners, global citizens, critical thinkers, and thoughtful communicators.
 
Another recent change district-wide in grades K-12 is the "Crew" culture. Teachers and students now have time each day to create positive connections and build authentic relationships with one another. Through Responsive Classroom at the elementary school and Crew at the middle and high schools, students and staff gather for 30 minutes each day to engage in meaningful experiences rooted in mutual and shared interests. 
The Crew block is a prioritized structure that allows staff to support all students socially, emotionally, and academically – anchoring them and promoting the Portrait of a Graduate competencies. Crew takes many forms at the high school, such as gardening, bird watching, yoga, and sports talk with visits to college games.
 
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