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Emily Belanger has received a $500 scholarship for her work on a chess set.

McCann Senior Receives Advanced Manufacturing Award

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — McCann Technical School senior Emily Belanger received a Travers Tool High School Senior Level Annual Tooling Scholarship for her chess set project.
 
Belanger, an advanced manufacturing technology student from North Adams, will receive $500 worth of tools useful for students pursuing careers in manufacturing.
 
"It has always been my dream to pursue manufacturing. Machining parts and designing is like a sixth sense, everything comes to me with ease," she wrote in a personal essay included with her application. "Being able to make a part within a thousandths of tolerance makes me feel like I did my job right, and that I have a true gift."
 
According to a project description, Belanger designed each individual chess piece and machined each piece from aluminum or brass.
 
She engraved or created pockets on each piece as needed on the mill and gave each piece a smooth finish to allow safe handling and gameplay.
 
"We created programs using the lathe to create certain arcs and diameters to change the size of the original stock," Belanger wrote. "If the parts needed additional work done to them (engravings, pockets, etc) we would then take it to the mill machine and create it there. It was one of the most fun projects I’ve ever made."
 
Scholarships are awarded to one underclass high school student, one high school senior class student, and one college student in the United States or Canada.
 
These tool scholarships are designed to lessen the financial burden students face and allow them to join the ranks of skilled machinists, CNC operators, welders, and exacting craftsmen that make up the fabric of the manufacturing industry. 
 
Travers is a metalworking and industrial supply superstore located in  Flushing, N.Y. It has distribution centers in South Carolina and California.

 


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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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