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Sixth-graders in the Williamstown Youth Center after-school program gather for a group photo with the donated tablets, including WYC Executive Director Michael Williams and John Maher of Charter Communications in the center.

Williamstown Youth Center Receives Donation of 25 Tablets

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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Youth Center director Michael Williams speaks at the presentation in the center's gym. 
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williamstown Youth Center could have started a Writers' Club for its afterschool program that involved having the kids sit down and print their musings by hand.
 
But thanks to a donation from Charter Communications, the cable and internet provider known locally as Spectrum, the facility has 25 brand-new tablets to help engage youngsters.
 
"It's not really writing if you're on a screen, right," WYC Executive Director Michael Williams joked on Wednesday afternoon.
 
Williams emceed a brief ceremony in the center's gymnasium that allowed the dozens of kids in the after-school program and local dignitaries to thank representatives from Charter for its donation to the WYC.
 
In addition to the tablets, the communications company is donating $2,000 that will be used to sponsor two youth basketball teams and support the youth center's financial aid and scholarship programs.
 
Williams said the center will find a number of uses for the tablets in its programming for kids in kindergarten through sixth grade. The Writers' Club, initially open to fifth- and sixth-graders, is just the start, but it's an important addition to the artistic, social and athletic offerings available every day until 5:30 p.m.
 
"The donation of these tablets was the impetus," Williams said. "It gave us the idea that we could do something like this.
 
"I want it to be creative, and I want it to be different enough from school that the kids are interested. But basically what we're trying to do is help kids express themselves. … I'll be doing it on Tuesday afternoons. We'll start at 5 and go from 5 to 6, so the parents will pick their kids up a little later on those days. We'll probably have a group of eight or nine to start with — very informal.
 
"We'll sit around [a table], and I'll start off with a theme. I'm thinking the first theme might be 'My favorite place.' And we'll take a turn each writing a little something about it. And we'll come back the next week and talk about it and do another assignment."
 
Williams used Wednesday's event as an opportunity to recognize the contributions of all those bodies that support the youth center, including town officials, the Williamstown Community Chest and the elementary school.
 
"We're only able to do what we do at the youth center because of the help from people in our community," Williams told the children.
 
State Sen. Adam Hinds talked about the importance of contributions from businesses like Charter.
 
"We just passed a major bill that said we're going to spend $1.5 billion more every single year than we already do just to make sure that you all get the education you deserve," Hinds said. "That's pretty important.
 
"There is one lesson I've learned so far, and that's that we put a lot of money into the government side and making sure our roads are paved and everything else. But, ultimately, what really makes things work is when we're working with companies as well."
 
A Charter spokesman said his company is committed to making technology accessible to all, and the tablets are just part of that effort.
 
"Today's a good example of how Spectrum works with a variety of diverse organizations doing impactful, meaningful work for our communities and neighborhoods," said John Maher, Charter's director of state government affairs.
 
"We're finding that technology's become more and more prevalent in our day-to-day lives. Therefore, it is imperative to reduce barriers for access to broadband technology."
 
In addition to the donation of hardware to the youth center, Maher touted Spectrum's "Internet Assist" program, which provides low-cost high-speed broadband service to residential customers who qualify for specific government income-based programs.
 
Hinds echoed Maher's emphasis on the growing importance of access and exposure to technology like the tablets donated Wednesday.
 
"We're making sure that every town has high-speed internet and making sure that our communication networks are where they need to be," Hinds told the children. "We're thinking about: What do we do for the future for you all. And, I'll tell you, you haven't figured it out yet … video games are just the beginning.
 
"Our whole lives are being run by the internet. What that means is you've got to know what it looks like to be involved in the digital space. And that's why having these 25 tablets contributed for after-school programming is such an important piece to make sure you constantly have exposure to the world that you're entering."

Tags: donations,   information technology,   spectrum,   williamstown youth center,   

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Williams Seeking Town Approval for New Indoor Practice Facility

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board last week gave Williams College the first approval it needs to build a 55,000-square foot indoor athletic facility on the north side of its campus.
 
Over the strenuous objection of a Southworth Street resident, the board found that the college's plan for a "multipurpose recreation center" or MRC off Stetson Road has adequate on-site parking to accommodate its use as an indoor practice facility to replace Towne Field House, which has been out of commission since last spring and was demolished this winter.
 
The college plans a pre-engineered metal that includes a 200-meter track ringing several tennis courts, storage for teams, restrooms, showers and a training room. The athletic surface also would be used as winter practice space for the school's softball and baseball teams, who, like tennis and indoor track, used to use the field house off Latham Street.
 
Since the planned structure is in the watershed of Eph's Pond, the college will be before the Conservation Commission with the project.
 
It also will be before the Zoning Board of Appeals, on Thursday, for a Development Plan Review and relief from the town bylaw limiting buildings to 35 feet in height. The new structure is designed to have a maximum height of 53 1/2 feet and an average roof height of 47 feet.
 
The additional height is needed for two reasons: to meet the NCAA requirement for clearance above center court on a competitive tennis surface (35 feet) and to include, on one side, a climbing wall, an element also lost when Towne Field House was razed.
 
The Planning Board had a few issues to resolve at its March 12 meeting. The most heavily discussed involved the parking determination for a use not listed in the town's zoning bylaws and a decision on whether access from town roads to the building site in the middle of Williams' campus was "functionally equivalent" to the access that would be required under the town's subdivision rules and regulations.
 
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