DALTON, Mass. -- Over the next year, the Wahconah Regional School District will work on building a new high school.
The community that has been built at Wahconah was on full display Friday afternoon.
The school's annual pep rally put its Unified Sports programs front and center as Wahconah unveiled a banner celebrating its recognition by Special Olympics as a National Unified Champion School.
"This isn't just about Unified athletics," Principal Aaron Robb told the student body gathered in Ed Ladley Gymnasium. "When we applied for this ... they want to know what we're doing in the classrooms. They want to know what we're doing in the hallways. They want to know what we're doing in the community.
"So this isn't just about Unified athletics. This is about Best Buddies. It's about what some of you do on Sundays at Pine Grove Park. It's what some of you do during the winter with swimming at the CRA.
"It isn't just about Wahconah. It's about the entire Central Berkshire community."
Unified Sports, an initiative of Special Olympics, allows students of all abilities to compete side-by-side wearing their school's colors. Special education students join forces with other members of the student body to compete in sports like track and field and basketball.
In Berkshire County, Wahconah was a trailblazer with the first Unified track and field team two years ago. Last year, Mount Greylock started a Unified basketball team and Hoosac Valley added Unified track.
In spring of 2019, Wahconah's Unified track and field team earned a state championship. And just this week, it battled against Mount Greylock in a thrilling basketball game that came down to overtime.
Special Olympics Massachusetts Unified Sports Manager Kathy Lutz was on hand Friday to talk about the community Wahconah has fostered.
"I'm proud and excited to be here with you all today for what Wahconah is doing for inclusion," Lutz said. "You didn't just come in at a baseline level. You didn't do the bare minimum to get by. You guys brought it to the next level.
"And what that means is you have two Unified sports. That means you have more youth inclusive leadership. And what I see out here from the amazing tweets and coverage of your games is you're bringing cheer and cheer tunnels and excitement to your games. The whole school is part of this."
On Friday, it truly was. The Wahconah student body cheered as hard and as loud for its members playing a Unified basketball scrimmage as it possibly could Friday night at the Homecoming football game.
It is the kind of enthusiasm that made Wahconah one of just 16 schools in the commonwealth and 173 schools nationwide to be named a National Unified Champion.
Lutz said she hopes that spirit will help keep the Special Olympics movement to expand.
"We applaud your efforts," she said. "And we know that this work here that you are doing and this experience that you are sharing here today -- that work is not yet done.
"We're going to grow in the Berkshires. You're going to influence your neighbors to join Unified Sports. And you are going to be the Unified generation. We expect your enthusiasm and excitement to lead this movement forward."
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Dalton Health Dept. Develops Temporary Food Event Info Sheet
By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
DALTON, Mass.—The Board of Health approved an amended version of a Temporary Food Event Informational Sheet.
Health Agent Agnes Witkowski and her Administrative Assistant Christina Parkington developed this information sheet to streamline the permitting process for temporary food events.
Before this information sheet, Witkowski would work with event organizers to determine the vendors. Then Witkowski and Parkington would reach out to the vendors with applications and information.
"There's times when we even had somebody show up as a vendor not being permitted and then they're looking for what we require. Well, this is to help organize that and to make it smoother," Witkowski said.
This document will be given to the event organizer and the vendors.
"I think it's just good communication, and it's helping guidelines and expectations," Witkowski said.
The sheet instructs the event coordinator to provide the Board of Health with a contact list of all vendors 30 days before the event. The list must include the vendor's name, contact person, phone number, and email address.
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