image description — The wind blew down the half-completed shed.

Williamstown Rotary Club Helps Build Cal Ripken League Shed

11:20AM / Wednesday, May 11, 2022Print Story | Email Story

The completed shed, with Adam Hall (L) and Jim Easton (R)

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. Over several weekends this April, the Rotary Club of Williamstown donated funds and labor to help the Williamstown Cal Ripken League build an equipment shed next to its newly reconditioned softball field behind the former Broad Brook School.

In early 2021, league board members Jim Easton and Chris Johnson approached Jim Mahon, grants chair of the Rotary Club of Williamstown, and requested help. In order to better establish a new softball, program a shed was needed to store equipment on season and off.

The Rotary Club board agreed, and last August the club obtained grant funding from its Rotary District (7890, which includes most of western Mass and central-western Connecticut). Work was to begin in early spring 2022.

Apart from the steep rise in prices over the year since the grant was funded, conditions looked favorable as construction started. Easton and Mahon started on April 9, setting concrete blocks onto stone pads and leveling them; the following Friday afternoon, the two of them framed a foundation of 2x6 lumber with a plywood floor. The next day, April 16, a crew of five Rotarians and four parents from the league set to work erecting a metal shed from a kit they purchased.

Unfortunately, later that day a rainstorm forced them to pause work. The following Wednesday, the half-erected shed blew down in a spring storm.

Nevertheless, with the help of Adam Hall, son of Rotarians Allen and Valerie Hall and a recent engineering graduate of Union College, a small crew re-erected and repaired the structure in late April.

Easton then tasked some of the softball parents with the assembly of four plastic shelf units, also donated by Rotary, to place inside.

Opening day for the girls' softball league was May 7.

Tags: Cal Ripken, softball,

iBerkshires.com Text Ads

Save & Earn with Greylock

3.30% APY 6-month certificate. Click to learn more! Insured by NCUA.

www.greylock.org

rk MILES Blding Materials

Are You Ready to Update Your Home? Start With rk MILES. 4 Locations (800)670-7433

www.rkmiles.com

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Reverend: Christian Nationalists Make Jesus Victim of 'Identity Theft'

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
08:08AM / Sunday, October 04, 2026

David Langston introduces the Rev. Darrell Goodwin on Wednesday morning.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Rev. Darrell Goodwin told attendees at Wednesday's "PrayAction Breakfast" that they need more action to make their prayer effective.

"Sometimes prayer causes us to be in deep reflection," Goodwin told the group gathered at the Williamstown Meetinghouse. "And years and years and years pass, and we've actually done nothing about it.

"Our physical belief system is somehow: Say the words to God, and it becomes God's responsibility, and we've done our part because we've told God exactly what to do."

Goodwin, the president of the United Church of Christ's Southern New England Conference, was invited to Williamstown by First Congregational Church to speak on "The Challenge of Christian Nationalism."

And Goodwin challenged his listeners to take meaningful action to confront and address the ideology in their daily lives.

Christian Nationalism, which Goodwin referred to as White Christian Nationalism, is a perversion of Christ's teachings, he said.

"What does it mean to be spiritually grounded but practically committed?" Goodwin asked rhetorically. "This morning I've been asked to come here to talk about Christian Nationalism, but I think it would be remiss if I didn't say White Christian Nationalism. I want to name all three of these words because each tells us something that we must do.

View Full Story