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Clarksburg Volunteer Firefighters stand with Leveque after the delivery.

Anheuser-Busch, Girardi Distributors Donate Water to Clarksburg Firefighters

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
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Anheuser-Busch and Girardi Distributors deliver 2,500 cans of water to the Clarksburg fire station.
 
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — Anheuser-Busch and Girardi Distributors delivered canned emergency drinking water to the Clarksburg Volunteer Fire Department.
 
To a passerby Monday morning, it would appear as though Girardi Distributors was delivering cases of beer to the Cross Road fire station. The unknowing passerby would certainly become a concerned passerby.
 
But a closer look at the cans would tell a different story. 
 
"This is great," Lt. Matthew Boillat said. "This water will be used and is much appreciated."
 
Girardi was not delivering 2,500 cans of Budweiser to the volunteer firefighters but 2,500 cans of emergency water.
 
Anheuser-Busch has a long-standing partnership with the American Red Cross, dating back to 1906. The Anheuser-Busch brewery in Merrimack, N.H., will periodically halt beer production to can drinking water, specifically to donate to communities for when natural disasters and other crises arise.
 
Since 1988, Anheuser-Busch and its wholesaler partners have provided nearly 83 million cans of water to the communities throughout the country in need.
 
More recently, they developed a partnership with the National Volunteer Fire Council. To date, they have donated 2.6 million cans of water to fire departments.
 
"I think giving back is something we have always done at Anheuser-Busch and at the distributor level," Girardi Distributors General Manager Tom Leveque said. "Giving back to the community and trying to be a community partner. The Girardi family has been in business for over 75 years and we are the only beer distributor in Berkshire County." 
 
Leveque said they have delivered water in Dalton, Williamstown, and North Adams.
 
Boillat said he has seen the emergency water cans out in their field before, to his surprise at a structure fire.
 
"I had to do a double-take," he laughed. "Are we cracking a beer at 4 in the morning? It was water; it was kind of funny." 
 
He said he saw the initiative on Facebook and filled out an application for the Clarksburg Volunteer Fire Department.
 
"We applied and here it is," he said. 
 
Boillat said the water will be used in trainings as well as on calls. He said they can hand it out on their own calls as well as mutual aid calls.
 
"That is what is great about our community, we stick together," he said. "It is great that Anheuser-Busch and Girardi and can help us, especially in a time like this."
 
Leveque thanked the volunteers for doing what they do.
 
"They are going to do something really nice too, and they are going to share it with other people," he said. 
 
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Clarksburg Sees Race for Select Board Seat

CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The town will see a three-way race for a seat on the Select Board in May. 
 
Colton Andrews, Seth Alexander and Bryana Malloy returned papers by Wednesday's deadline to run for the three-year term vacated by Jeffrey Levanos. 
 
Andrews ran unsuccessfully for School Committee and is former chairman of the North Adams Housing Authority, on which he was a union representative. He is also president of the Pioneer Valley Building Trades Council.
 
Malloy and Alexander are both newcomers to campaigning. Malloy is manager of industrial relations for the Berkshire Workforce Board and Alexander is a resident of Gates Avenue. 
 
Alexander also returned papers for several other offices, including School Committee, moderator, library trustee and the five-year seat on the Planning Board. He took out papers for War Memorial trustee and tree warden but did not return them and withdrew a run for Board of Health. 
 
He will face off in the three-year School Committee seat against incumbent Cynthia Brule, who is running for her third term, and fellow newcomer Bonnie Cunningham for library trustee. 
 
Incumbent Ronald Boucher took out papers for a one-year term as moderator but did not return them. He was appointed by affirmation in 2021 when no won ran and accepted the post again last year as a write-in.
 
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