Biz Briefs: Pine Cobble School, Northshire Bookstore to Host Book Fair

By the book

Pine Cobble School and Northshire Bookstore will host their second annual collaborative book fair on the Pine Cobble campus from Nov. 28-30 from 7:30 to 9 a.m. and 3 to 5:30 p.m. daily. The fair is open to the community.

This event includes a specially curated selection of books for all ages. Books are thoughtfully chosen by Cynthia Quinones, Pine Cobble's literature ambassador, and the Northshire staff. Northshire Bookstore has won national awards for their quality selection and service.  

Books will be sorted into categories, with selections for very young children, picture books, early chapter books, middle grade books, young adult, adult fiction, and a few specialty books. All will be gift-worthy. Twenty percent of all proceeds will go to Pine Cobble's library.

During fair hours, shoppers can browse the collection in Pine Cobble's reception room, at 163 Gale Road in Williamstown. They will place an order using a simple form. All orders will be sorted into individual bags, then brought to the school for an early December pickup.

Shopping from independent bookstores like Northshire keeps money local, supports neighbors, requires less packaging, and creates a smaller carbon footprint. IndieBound, an association of independent bookstores notes that if one spends $100 at a locally-owned business, $52 of that stays in your community, versus $13 at a national chain and $0 from an online retailer. Local businesses donate to charities at more than twice the rate of national chains.

Tree time

The Horst family is re-entering the retail Christmas tree market with cut-your-own and pre-cut trees at its second farm location in North Pownal, Vt. Formerly Rudd’s Tree Farm, it has long been a favorite spot for many Berkshire residents to cut their own trees. Now Mt. Anthony Tree Farms, it will re-open to the public this season on Fridays through Sundays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Dec. 16. Mt. Anthony Tree Farms’ Pownal location is at 3583 VT-346, North Pownal, VT 05261. Call 802.447.0660 visit the website.

While pre-cut trees will be available, this will primarily be a cut-your-own operation. Mt. Anthony Tree Farms will offer fir, both fraser and balsam, up to 8 feet, and saws, tree-wrapping for easier transport, and cut-your-own trees for $50, regardless of height. Pre-cut trees are priced individually.

The Horst family has been growing Christmas trees for the wholesale market for nearly 50 years. For 12 of those years, they also opened their Bennington farm for cut-your-own sales. But as a weekend business, there was conflict between the needs of a young family and the needs of customers. Now, almost 20 years later, the Horst’s two children are young adults and play an active role in the family’s tree operation. Jessica, 27, helps with social media and web design, while Fritz, 29, is involved in all phases of production and sales. 

Sharing the love

Hillcrest Educational Centers is participating in Subaru of America's 11th annual Share the Love campaign. Subaru will donate $250 to charity for every new Subaru vehicle purchased or leased at more than 628 participating Subaru retailers nationwide, including Berkshire County's Haddad Subaru. Along with a handful of national charities, Subaru retailers can add local charities for customers to support. Thanks to Haddad Subaru, Hillcrest Educational Centers is the hometown charity to which Haddad customers can donate.

Wicked suite

Berkshire Bank has launched of its Wicked Suite Giveaway. The annual giveaway offers a unique game-day experience for veterans of the U.S. Military. The giveaway drawing will be open until Feb. 12 and will award four winners with two tickets each to the Berkshire Bank and NESN (New England Sports Network) All-Access Game Day Experience at TD Garden in Boston on March 30, 2019.

The Game Day Experience includes watching the Boston Bruin’s hockey game in the NESN suite as well as a behind-the-scenes tour of NESN’s production facilities at the arena. To learn more about the Wicked Suite Giveaway and for complete rules, visit the website.

Primary care recognition

Southwestern Vermont Medical Center and Southwestern Vermont Health Care's five primary care practices in Vermont — SVMC Deerfield Valley Campus in Wilmington, SVMC Internal Medicine in Bennington, SVMC Northshire Campus in Manchester, SVMC Pediatrics in Bennington, and SVMC Pownal Campus in Powna — have achieved recognition for providing personalized, effective, and efficient primary care. The medical practices are now designated as Patient Centered Medical Homes by the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

The primary care medical home program identifies practices that promote partnerships between individual patients and their personal clinicians. A team of doctors, nurses, and other allied health providers oversees each patient’s care. The team ensures that care for all the patient's health needs is coordinated across the health care system.

To receive recognition, a practice must demonstrate its ability to meet six key standards of the Patient Centered Medical Home model, which was developed by the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Osteopathic Association. The areas include access to care, using tools to identify patients and their information; planning and managing patient care; providing self-care tools; tracking and coordinating care; and a system for measuring and improving performance. Each standard has several subsections. Practices must resubmit for consideration every year.

PTA approval

Berkshire Community College's Physical Therapist Assistant program has been approved by their accrediting body, CAPTE, to accept an annual cohort of students instead of the current biannual offering. This means that BCC will admit an annual class of 20 students every year.  Currently, BCC offers seats to 26 every other year.

Overall this increase in the number of potential students to 40 over a two-year span would allow for 14 more students to find seats in the program who would have otherwise been waitlisted. Spring classes begin on Jan. 22, but the next PTA cohort will begin in the fall of 2019. For more information, email Michele Darroch.

Coggins Classic Golf Tournament Helps Bennington Project Independence

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:37PM / Saturday, September 05, 2026

This was the tournament's fifth year; it combined with the independence project's annual golf outing this year. 

BENNINGTON, Vt. — Thirty teams hit the green for this year's Coggins Classical Golf tournament, helping Coggins Auto raise money for Bennington Project Independence.

Coggins Auto Marketing Director Valerie Harrington said the fifth annual tournament, which was held on Aug. 28, continued a tradition of community-driven giving. 

Harrington first helped organize the tournament in 2022. She hoped to raise $10,000, which would allow the auto group to leverage a $10,000 Toyota match program. 

The tournament has successfully raised more than $50,000 the last two years, with last year's beneficiary the Cancer Center Community Crusaders. 

This year, it raised more than $50,000 alone, including meeting the Toyota match the third year in a row.

Harrington said she wanted to help the nonprofits in the area, especially those that might get overlooked.

"The idea of it was especially for those nonprofits that are pretty small and don't have really the funds or the means or understanding of how to put on a golf tournament, and to give them an opportunity to get at least $20,000 in funds that year, which is huge for a lot of them, and it's really grown since then," she said.

"There's a lot of nonprofits that are big and big and loud and you know about them, but there are so many more that are like people don't even realize they exist. But what they do is super critical and important to the people in our community."

Local nonprofits submit an application each year explaining their mission and what they need to succeed. Coggins employees narrow the submissions to their top three choices and then let the community decide who they should pick.

Bennington has more than 100 nonprofits, and it can be hard to keep track of them all, but with the tournament, Coggins is able to have many people learn and see the needs in their community and nonprofits they haven't heard about.

"Even if they don't win, they've got in front of thousands of people who read their story and know what they need and know what they do to just spread awareness," Harrington said. "And then by having the community vote on it, then we know for sure what we're doing is what the community wants the most at that given time ...

"The community is saying, 'Hey, we want this nonprofit. We like what they're trying to do. Let's give them help because it's the decision of hundreds to thousands of people rather than just a handful of us.'"

Bennington Project Independence is an adult day service for individuals and families facing the challenges of aging or disability. This year the organization is combining its 13th annual golf tournament with Coggins.

"I think they've affected a lot of people's lives and helped a lot of families because it's an adult day facility for not just the elderly but also special needs," Harrington said. "So what they do every day to keep those folks' lives enriched while giving the family a break or allowing them to go to work and do these things. It's really important."

The 2027 tournament submissions will open in March of 2027.