Letter: New Name for Apkin

To the Editor:

George Apkin & Sons Inc., would like to share with you some exciting news about our company. We have been working on a strategic plan to ensure that we will be able to continue servicing all our industrial and dealer customers seamlessly for the long term. To ensure that success, we have recently partnered with the Joseph Freedman Co. in Springfield and its affiliates, Perlman Recycling in Pittsfield and Eastern Vehicle Recycling in Westfield.

We are very excited for the depth that this partnership brings. They have a long history dating back 132 years, a great reputation, a professional and friendly team, and a full suite of metal recycling services to further complement our operations.

The only real change will be a small name change to: Apkin Inc. All of our employees in Adams are staying onboard in their current positions, and both of us (Joe Apkin and Bill Apkin) will be staying on as well. Joe Apkin will be leading the company as president, and Bill Apkin will be staying onboard in an advisory role. Sally Cable and Cindi McLain will remain in the office for anything you need.

We appreciate the community that we work with, and it is important to us that we sustain the reputaton and the standing that we have built. To ensure that, we have worked trelessly to make sure that we have partnered with a company that shares our values. We are confident that you will not be disappointed by the transiton.

Thank you to all who have supported us through the years, we look forward to a new chapter.

Joe & Bill Apkin, the Apkin Team
Adams,Mass. 

Berkshire Arts & Tech Grads 'Grateful to Be Weird'

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
06:30PM / Saturday, June 06, 2026

Class speaker Liliana Choque says she was thankful to be 'weird with all of you.' See more photos here. 

ADAMS, Mass. — Among the things that Berkshire Arts and Technology Charter Public School senior Lilianna Choque was thankful for on Saturday was the fact that she knows all her classmates.

 

"In preparation for today, I have read and watched a lot of other graduation speeches," Choque said during her "senior reflection" at the school's graduation exercises. "All of them, without fail, had some version of the same throwaway line: 'Although I don't know all of my classmates,' or, 'Some of you may not know me.'

 

"But the beautiful thing about a graduating class of 32 is that that doesn't apply. I do know all of you … quite well."

 

And, Choque said, she likes what she knows.

 

"Maybe the rumors are true, and we are the weird kids," she said. "But — and you have to forgive me, because I'm going to invoke the right I've been given as a BArT student to be a little cringe here — I'm so grateful to be weird with all of you."

 

Choque was not the only one to extoll the virtues of what she called her "32-ring circle of friends," and she was not the only one to talk about the kindness exhibited by the Class of '26.

 

Head of School Jonathan Igoe set that tone in his opening remarks.