Lever Seeks Applicants for Mohawk Trail Entrepreneur Challenge

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
01:03AM / Monday, November 30, 2020Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Entrepreneurs have about two weeks to apply for a grant program that looks to support sustainable, woodland-related businesses.

Lever Inc. in North Adams is hosting the Mohawk Trail Entrepreneur Challenge, which offers a prize of $25,000 to the winner and guidance in developing a business plan to all who apply.

It is the latest in a series of challenges organized by Lever, which has helped launch 46 new companies in the Berkshire regions since its inception in 2014.

This time around, Lever is partnering with the Mohawk Trail Woodlands Partnership, a collaboration of 16 municipalities in Franklin and Berkshire County's Mohawk Trail (Route 2) corridor whose core mission includes "natural resource-based economic development."

Lever's workforce programs manager Jade Schnauber told the Williamstown Select Board recently that unlike past challenges, this one will be completely virtual, with training sessions and judging held remotely.

She also said the organizers have five applicants but are hoping for at least twice that many.

"We're looking for entrepreneurs who meet three criteria," Schnauber said. "First, they're able to create jobs in one of the Mohawk Trail Woodlands Partnership communities. Second, that they have a business or idea that relates to woodland natural resources in some way. … Third, we're looking for start-ups only -- companies that are less than two years old or have less than $500,000 in revenue."

Some examples of the kinds of businesses Lever has in mind for the challenge are Charlemont's Zoar Outdoor, which offers whitewater rafting, zipline canopy tours and kayaking, or Tennessee's Mullican Flooring, which makes flooring from fallen trees, Schnauber said.

At a meeting of the MTWP Board of Directors earlier this month, Lever Executive Director Jeffrey Thomas, a member of the partnership board, told his colleagues that the first five applications in the door were in the ecotourism field, but the challenge is open to all sorts of initiatives that utilize forest resources in a sustainable manner.

"We will work with the entrepreneurs and get them ready for the pitch competition," Thomas said.

Priority will be given to business ideas that have a high potential to create jobs and that can attract funding from other sources.

An application for the Mohawk Trail Entrepreneur Challenge can be found here.

Tags: business competition, forestry,

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Mount Greylock School Committee Discusses Collaboration Project with North County Districts

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:34AM / Friday, December 19, 2025

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — News that the group looking at ways to increase cooperation among secondary schools in North County reached a milestone sparked yet another discussion about that group's objectives among members of the Mount Greylock Regional School Committee.

At Thursday's meeting, Carolyn Greene reported that the Northern Berkshire Secondary Sustainability task force, where she represents the Lanesborough-Williamstown district, had completed a request for proposals in its search for a consulting firm to help with the process that the task force will turn over to a steering committee comprised of four representatives from four districts: North Berkshire School Union, North Adams Public Schools, Hoosac Valley Regional School District and Mount Greylock Regional School District.

Greene said the consultant will be asked to, "work on things like data collection and community outreach in all of the districts that are participating, coming up with maybe some options on how to share resources."

"That wraps up the work of this particular working group," she added. "It was clear that everyone [on the group] had the same goals in mind, which is how do we do education even better for our students, given the limitations that we all face.

"It was a good process."

One of Greene's colleagues on the Mount Greylock School Committee used her report as a chance to challenge that process.

"I strongly support collaboration, I think it's a terrific idea," Steven Miller said. "But I will admit I get terrified when I see words like 'regionalization' in documents like this. I would feel much better if that was not one of the items we were discussing at this stage — that we were talking more about shared resources.

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