Letter: April Is National Volunteer Month

Letter to the Editor01:00PM / Friday, April 15, 2022Print Story | Email Story

To the Editor:

Kindness and Compassion. April is National Volunteer Month.

Why do people volunteer? What do they get out of it?

We're taught from a very young age that we will feel good if we help others. It's true, volunteering gives us a sense of meaning, of purpose.

Thanks to a website, nextdoor.com, people can post requests for help. I just saw such a request from someone who knew of an elderly woman who was unable to walk her beloved dog and would have to give him up if she couldn't find help walking him. "Her health is declining, and the dog is her best friend."

I believe it's common knowledge that having something to care for can make a huge difference in someone's mental health as well as physical health; it can reduce anxiety and aid in recovery. Giving and receiving love is a basic need we all have. Sometimes a pet is all someone has. This is especially true of many elderly persons who would suffer social isolation without their pets.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if our towns took the reins to provide help to their citizens who are in need. Perhaps include the Police Department – this would be a great way for them to strengthen community partnerships. Schools could create clubs that would teach students community service and perhaps even give them credit. Dog walking would be a great job for a student!

Diane Perault
Williamstown, Mass.

Tags: volunteers,

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9/11 Now Part of Broader Conversation in Classrooms

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:26AM / Thursday, September 10, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — When talking about teaching the greatest American tragedy of the 21st century in today's classrooms, teachers draw a parallel to how they were taught about one of the defining moments of the 21st century.

"Oddly now, it is kind of like when my World War II relatives and teachers talked about the Depression or Pearl Harbor," Mount Greylock Regional School history teacher Jeffrey Welch said recently. "The kids [today] are generally interested in personal and social history, and so, for that reason alone, they are curious.

"But 9/11 is also a 21st century icon. Local families lost loved ones, some of whom are still connected to the school community. Also, so many have connections to NYC and have been to Ground Zero and the museum. It is poignant, I think, but far less visceral for the students to study with the passage of time."

As the nation prepares to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on Friday, the nation's classrooms are the place where the events of 9/11 and its repercussions are being taught to a generation that lacks the emotional grounding in the events at Ground Zero that high school students may have had as recently as a dozen years ago.

At Wahconah Regional High School, Bryan Patton, who was reached separately for this story, made the same historical reference when asked about teaching 9/11 25 years after the fact.

"It's interesting because the way we have covered 9/11 has evolved over the years," Patton said. "It definitely used to get students' attention as a current or recent event years ago. For many students now, it's the way Pearl Harbor or Vietnam was when I was a student in the '90s.

"It was actually a difficult thing for my colleagues and I to grasp as they didn't live through it. It was before they were born so to them it's just an historical event. They ask questions. They care. But it's not the visceral response it used to be."

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