Letter: Get Information About Dangers of Youth Vaping

To the Editor:

The start of the school year and new routines brings new worries about teen vaping. These concerns are important, especially now, because smoking and vaping may put people at higher risk of complications from COVID-19.

One in three Massachusetts teens vape and talking with young people about the dangers of vaping can make a difference. Learn more and watch videos at GetOutraged.org, part of a public information campaign from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Get Outraged! aims to spread the word that vaping products contain nicotine, can damage a teen's developing brain, and are addictive. The campaign also shares tips on talking with kids about vaping and resources to help them quit.

Get Outraged! complements "Facts. No Filters." a campaign with videos and information about vaping for youth at mass.gov/vaping by the Department of Public Health in collaboration with the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation.

In addition, handouts about vaping and quit resource cards for youth are available free of charge at the Massachusetts Health Promotion Clearinghouse.

For more information and to help you educate young people about vaping, contact Joyce Brewer at the Berkshire Tobacco-Free Community Partnership, jbrewer@berkshireahec.org
 

Joyce Brewer
Dalton, Mass.

Joyce Brewer is the program manager for the Berkshire Tobacco Free Community Partnership of Berkshire AHEC.

Bracewell Youth Project

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
01:21PM / Monday, April 06, 2026

Above, a watercolor landscape on the second floor.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Residents entering transitional housing at 111 Bracewell Ave. can look to the left to see a light at the end of the tunnel. 

 

The dark painting with its pathway toward lighted element brought to mind the Hoosac Tunnel, said Kathy Keeser, executive director of Louison House, on Friday.

 

"Somebody who was going through something could think, well, this is a way out — or a way in," she said, of why she selected that piece.

 

Plus, she added, the colors really worked in the front hallway of the Bracewell Youth Housing Project. 

 

The work was one of three donated by artist Sarah Sutro, whose paintings also hang in the Flood House and in Terry's House in Adams. A regional and international artist who makes her home in North Adams, her artworks have been in collections and exhibitions in the United States and abroad, including at the State House. 

 

Sutro's recently been going through her works of acrylics, inks and watercolors she's created over her career.  

 

"I just have enjoyed giving some of my paintings that are in storage in my studio, not doing anything with them, and having them out in the community instead, and having other people enjoy them and relate to them," she said.