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Mayor Linda Tyer reads a proclamation recognizing community leaders Manny and Vanessa Slaughter, left.

Pittsfield Honors Couple's Efforts Promoting Sports & Literacy

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Two city residents who have provided a summer camp that's benefited hundreds of local children over the past two decades were recognized at Tuesday's City Council meeting.
 
Mayor Linda Tyer read a proclamation honoring community leaders Manny and Vanessa Slaughter, who were awarded the Black Excellence on the Hill Award by the Black and Latino Caucus in Boston earlier this month.  
 
"They both have incredibly powerful stories and the size of the things they have done for the youth of our community as individuals," Tyer said. "They have some powerful personal stories and it is a privilege to know you, to learn from you, and stand here with you today."
 
State Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier introduced the Slaughters and said they ran the Marilyn Hamilton Literacy and Sports and Literacy Summer Camp for more than 20 years, creating a safe place for students to engage in healthy activity while also staying engaged with reading and math skills. 
 
"This started years ago really with what they did on their own," she said. "They wrote grants, they begged a little and they started this camp. 100 kids would show up in a day. It is kind of crazy."
 
"It was safe but crazy," Manny laughed.
 
She said the camp prevented "summer slide" and when students returned to school they retained a lot of the information they learned the previous school year.
 
Farley-Bouvier added that unlike many programs Manny and Vanessa directly connected with families involved making it more successful. 
 
"We can have all of the good intentions that we want," she said. "We can have programs, we can have excellent curriculum, but if we do not have trusted members of our community reaching out to our families and letting them know that their kids are safe we ain't got nothing. ...
 
"That is what Manny and Vanessa have been to this community and I am proud to be a fellow Pittsfielder with you." 
 
Last year's honorees included Ty Allan Jackson, local author, literacy advocate, publisher and motivational speaker, and Shirley Edgerton, founder and director of the Rites of Passage and Empowerment Program, director of Youth Alive and cultural proficiency coach for the Pittsfield Public Schools.

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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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