Pittsfield School Committee Accepts Thunder as New Taconic Mascot

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The School Committee on Wednesday accepted Thunder as the new mascot for Taconic High School and a logo is in the works.  

The nickname was announced earlier this month after a series of community surveys that began in October 2021.  Taconic was rebranded from its former pseudonym, The Braves, which was dropped in 2020.

Earlier this year, Titans and Rockets were the other potential identities for the school. Principal Matthew Bishop explained to the committee how the winner was named.

The school was contacted by Taconic Hills High School in New York, whose sports teams are identified as the Titans, with concerns of confusion between the similarly named schools if that mascot was chosen.

"The last time we talked we were down to our top three, which were, as you know, Thunder, Titans and Rockets, and in our initial research we were aware that Taconic Hills was the Titans and then after the last round, we realized that Titans and the Thunder were the two most popular choices," Bishop explained.

"In the meantime, thanks to the press releases and the local coverage, Taconic Hills reached out to us and they said 'Hey, do what you want but we get confused a lot and we think this would be ... ,' you know, because they are the Taconic Hills Titans and Taconic High School Titans may have been too much, it would have just added to the confusion.

"So we had a lot of debate internally about it and we went back and forth on it but ultimately the committee decided that we wanted our own identity, one that was separate, we didn't want to infringe on anyone's brand, they've had it for quite some time since the early '60s so we sort of went with the Thunder."

Bishop said thunder represents strength, energy, direction, and confidence and that will serve as an inspiration for the new logo. The only other weather-related Berkshire mascot are the Hoosac Valley Hurricanes. 

There have been more than 40 initial design submissions from students after the school called for input.  

They will be passed off to Heard Strategy and Storytelling — a marketing and communications agency that has offered pro bono rebranding services for schools changing Native American mascots — to help guide the rebranding process.

Superintendent Joseph Curtis revealed that his son submitted a design.

Committee member Alison McGee said thunder is both neutral and empowering as a mascot.

"I know it was a long process, and I didn't know what to expect from it and I don't think this was what I would expect but I think that shows that there was a truly thoughtful process involved," she said.

The National Congress of American Indians has been advocating against using indigenous mascots in professional teams since 1968 and extended that to K-12 in 2020, saying they "are symbols of disrespect that degrade, mock, and harm Native people, particularly Native youth."

The committee has worked with Heard throughout the process.  It reviewed more than 230 options that were submitted through the first survey.

Committee member Vicki Smith asked what will be done with all of the Taconic Braves paraphernalia and Bishop said the new school — completed in 2018 — was designed with rebranding in mind.

"When we moved into the new school, we were very conscious of this and so we actually have new banners going up in the gym, you will see an absence of that word in the new school, so when the school was being designed that was something that we were conscious of branding with Taconic as opposed to Braves so that we don't really have any paraphernalia anymore," he explained.

"All that stuff was sort of donated or given away with the old school. We really don't have any I mean, sports teams here and there have jerseys left over that make their way into kids' hands and the supermarkets are still selling their stuff but as time goes on, we'll sort of transition that out."

Bishop acknowledged that the rebranding has been a long process and said he is looking forward to getting Taconic Thunder uniforms and more.

"It's been a long process and we've come out of it with this," he said.

"And I'm looking forward to sort of just putting the exclamation point on it with our uniform designs and things like that."

Toys for Tots Bringing Presents to Thousands of Kids This Year

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
12:21PM / Friday, December 05, 2025

Volunteers organize toys by age and gender in the House of Corrections storage facility. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Plenty of toys are on their way to children this holiday season thanks to Toys for Tots.

Christopher Keegan has coordinated the local toy drive for the Berkshire Chapter of the Marine Corps Reserve since 2015 and said he has seen the need rise every year, last year helping more than 6,000 kids.

"This is 11 years I've been doing it, and the need has gone up every year. It's gone up every year, and I anticipate it going up even more this year," Keegan said.

On Thursday, the Berkshire County House of Corrections storage facility was overflowing with toys making it the county's very own Santa's workshop. 

Keegan said Berkshire County always shows up with toys or donations. 

"This county is outstanding when it comes to charity. They rally around stuff. They're very giving, they're very generous, and they've been tremendous in this effort, the toys for pride effort, since I've been doing it, our goal is to honor every request, and we've always reached that goal," he said.

Keegan's team is about 20 to 25 volunteers who sort out toys based on age and gender. This week, the crew started collecting from the 230 or so boxes set out around the county on Oct. 1.

"The two age groups that are probably more difficult — there's a newborn to 2s, boys and girls, and 11 to 14, boys and girls. Those are the two challenging ages where we need to focus our attention on a little bit more," he said.

Toys For Tots has about 30 participating schools and agencies that sign up families and individuals who need help putting gifts under the tree. Keegan takes requests right up until the last minute on Christmas.

"We can go out shopping for Christmas. I had sent my daughter out Christmas Eve morning. Hey, we need X amount of toys and stuff, but the requests are still rolling in from individuals, and I don't say no, we'll make it work however we can," he said.

Community members help to raise money or bring in unopened and unused toys. Capeless Elementary student Thomas St. John recently raised $1,000 selling hot chocolate and used the money to buy toys for the drive.

"It's amazing how much it's grown and how broad it is, how many people who were involved," Keegan said.

On Saturday, Live 95.9 personalities Bryan Slater and Marjo Catalano of "Slater and Marjo in the Morning" will host a Toys for Tots challenge at The Hot Dog Ranch and Proprietor's Lodge. Keegan said they have been very supportive of the drive and that they were able to collect more than 3,000 toys for the drive last year.

Volunteer Debbie Melle has been volunteering with Toys for Tots in the county for about five years and said people really showed up to give this year.

"I absolutely love it. It's what we always say. It's organized chaos, but it's rewarding. And what I actually this year, I'm so surprised, because the amount that the community has given us, and you can see that when you see these pictures, that you've taken, this is probably the most toys we've ever gotten," she said. "So I don't know if people just feel like this is a time to give and they're just going above and beyond, but I'm blown away. This year we can barely walk down the aisles for how much, how many toys are here. It's wonderful."