Author Elizabeth Winthrop to lecture at Ventfort Hall

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Bestselling author Elizabeth Winthrop will tell the story behind her new novel, “Counting on Grace” (Random House, 2006) in a lecture at Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum. The multi-award-winning writer of over 50 books, including the classic “The Castle in the Attic” and its sequel, “The Battle for the Castle”, Winthrop will speak on Saturday, May 12 at 4 p.m. and then join her audience for Victorian Tea in Ventfort Hall’s grand dining room. In this talk about her creative process, Winthrop will discuss her inspiration from the haunting Lewis Hine 1910 photograph of a twelve-year-old mill girl. Winthrop created the fictional Grace Forcier, a French-Canadian spinner, who is proud to work by her mother’s side as a doffer. But when Hine arrives at the mill to document the horrors of child labor, Grace becomes his secret ally, a decision that brings both devastating repercussions, as well as the possibility for a different life for this child. In a presentation with slides that runs like a historical detective thriller, Winthrop will introduce us to Grace, while at the same time showing us in scenes from the life of a small Vermont town, the riveting story of Winthrop’s painstaking and finally rewarding search for Addie, the real child in Hine’s photograph. Winthrop reconstructs Addie’s life piece-by piece, rescuing this little Vermont girl at last from the dustbin of history. “Counting on Grace”, a book that holds as much appeal for adults as for young readers, has been chosen as a Notable Book of the Year by the American Library Association, the National Council of Social Studies, the International Reading Association and the Children’s Book Council. It has been nominated for the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award and is the Vermont Reads Selection for 2007, as well as the 2007 Massachusetts Honor Book in Children’s Literature. Winthrop has written more than 50 books for children of all ages. Her children’s novel, “The Castle in the Attic”, has been nominated for 23 state book awards and won the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award in Vermont and the Young Readers Award in California. Winthrop’s fiction has been selected by Best American Short Stories, Children’s Choice Awards, Barnes and Noble’s Best Children’s Books of the Year, the “New York Times” Best Illustrated Books, the Bank Street College Best Books for Children and the School Library Journal’s Best of the Best List, among others. Her popular picture books include “Dumpy LaRue”, “Dancing Granny”, “Shoes”, “Maggie and the Monster”, “Squashed in the Middle“and, most recently, “The First Christmas Stocking” and “The Biggest Parade”. Two of her recent books for older children are: “Red-Hot Rattoons” and “Dear Mr. President, Letters from a Milltown Girl”. Winthrop is the daughter of the late Stewart Alsop, the political journalist. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied writing with Grace Paley and Jane Cooper. Admission for the lecture and tea is $15 per person ($12 members). For more information or reservations, please call 413-637-3206. Ventfort Hall is located at 104 Walker Street, Lenox and is online at www.gildedage.org An Official Project of Save America’s Treasures, Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum offers tours of the historic mansion, as well as lectures, concerts, teas, theater and other programs. This elegant Berkshire “cottage,” listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is open to the public year-round and is available for private rental. Built in 1893 for George and Sarah Morgan (sister of the financier, J. P. Morgan), Ventfort Hall has undergone substantial restoration, which continues.
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BVNA Nurses Raise Funds for Berkshire Bounty

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Massachusetts Nursing Association members of the Berkshire Visiting Nurses Association raised $650 to help with food insecurity in Berkshire County.
 
The nurses and health-care professionals of BVNA have given back to the community every holiday season for the last three years. The first year, they adopted a large family, raised money, bought, wrapped and delivered the gifts for the family. Last year, they sold raffle tickets and the money raised went to the charitable cause of the winner. 
 
This year, with food insecurity as a rising issue, they chose to give to Berkshire Bounty in Great Barrington.
 
They sold raffle tickets for a drawing to win one of two items: A lottery ticket tree or a gift certificate tree, each worth $100. They will be giving the organization the donation this month.
 
Berkshire Bounty seeks to improve food security in the county through food donations from retailers and local farms; supplemental purchases of healthy foods; distribution to food sites and home deliveries; and collaborating with partners to address emergencies and improve the food system. 
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