image description — Lenox High students are selling saplings to offset their use of paper.

Lenox Students Planting Trees to Offset Paper Use

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
01:18AM / Monday, March 01, 2021Print Story | Email Story

The school is partnering with Tree-plenish, which started at Mansfield High School. Here Mansfield students Peter Oldow, Will Giffen, and Cam Eddy are ready to plant last year.

LENOX, Mass. — Lenox Memorial High School students want to plant 100 trees as a way to replace one million sheets of paper.

And they're looking for help from the community to purchase the saplings and plant them on April 24.

"Basically we're trying to offset our school's paper usage by getting people to buy trees and then getting volunteers to come with us to go plant them in their homes," said student Sabrina Lewis. "I'm really excited, but also, we do need people to buy more trees."

Community members can buy an 18 inch to 24 inch red maple or river birch sapling for $5, which includes delivery and COVID-19 safe planting.

The goal is to replace the estimated million sheets of paper that the school uses each year. Students have already sold around 21 trees.

This event was organized by the school's Climate Crisis Control Club in partnership with Massachusetts non-profit organization Tree-Plenish, which began as a senior project in Mansfield and now reaches around 20 states. The student-led nonprofit says it's on target to plant 14,000 trees through partnerships with 90 schools.

The club was started by Lewis and classmate Medeja Rudzinskaite last year and currently has around 13 members.

"Even though we're remote now and we use less trees, we're still trying to offset our usage from previous years," Rudzinskaite said.

Tree-Plenish reached out to Grade 9 world literature teacher Scott Wade at the beginning of the school year and the club was happy to partner with it.

Wade explained that the club is also planning an Earth Day cleanup to beautify local spaces and have a few other projects in the works. Earth Day is on Thursday, April 22.

He said this project has also made him realize that many class handouts could be replaced with a Google document or other virtual rendering.

Saplings can be purchased at tree-plenishevents.org/lenox.

Tags: Lenox Memorial, trees,

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Pittsfield Council Revisiting DEI Office Restructure

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
04:11PM / Tuesday, October 13, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The conversation about the DEI office renaming that was halted by a charter objection will resume on Tuesday.

The City Council will discuss a request from Mayor Peter Marchetti to restructure the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

It proposes to rename the DEI office to the Office of Equity, Access, and Opportunity and merge the Human Rights Commission and Affirmative Action Committee into an Equity, Access and Opportunity Commission.

The Ordinance and Rules Subcommittee supported the changes in August, and in September, Ward 2 Councilor Cameron Cunningham delayed the vote with a charter objection.

Pittsfield's City Code prohibits charter states that "if a single member present objects to the taking of the vote, the vote shall be postponed until the next meeting of the city council." It also stipulates that at least four members must object if it is an emergency measure.

Cunningham also submitted a petition, which was referred to O&R under Rule 27, to replace the DEI Office and the Human Rights Commission with an equity, access, and opportunity coordinator in the Department of Community Development, with formal complaints and Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action functions assigned to Human Resources.

At the last meeting, he spent more than an hour querying the mayor and chief diversity officer about functions and effectiveness of the department, wanting more quantitative data. Cunningham proposed an ordinance that he says keeps Pittsfield's commitment to equity, access, and opportunity, "refocuses it on measurable results for our residents, and delivers it at a fraction of the current cost."

Under this petition, the equity, access, and opportunity coordinator would be a $60,000 to $80,000 per year position.

The DEI Office's fiscal year 2027 budget was about $200,000 after cuts during budget season; $106,700 for the chief diversity officer and $58,000 for the administrative assistant. The coordinator would be appointed by the director of community development and the mayor.

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