Second Street Elects Four New Board Members

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Charlie Catacalos, Becky Crane, Daniel Lowenstein and Roberta McCulloch-Dews.
PITTSFIELD, Mass — Second Street Second Chances has elected four new members to its Board of Directors: Charlie Catacalos, Becky Crane, Daniel Lowenstein and Roberta McCulloch-Dews. 
 
Charlie Catacalos, a newcomer to the Berkshires, grew up in Maryland near Washington, D.C. After attending Temple University in Philadelphia, they spent half a year working in cultural institutions in the Adirondacks. They eventually found their way to North Adams, where they have resided for the past two years. Catacalos is the Exhibitions Research and Content Editor at the Berkshire Museum and enjoys their job of learning new things and sharing with others. They also serve on the board of Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition, the oldest LGBTQ+ nonprofit organization in the Berkshires. In their free time, Catacalos writes music, makes ceramics and spends time with their 16-year-old cat, Percy.
 
 Becky Crane, LICSW, has been a resident of Berkshire County since 1983 and has worked in downtown Pittsfield in various roles since 2006. She has worked for the Child & Adolescent Services division of the Brien Center in several capacities and was a substance abuse educator for middle and high schools from 2006-2008. Crane earned her social work degree in 2010 and returned to the Brien Center, where she worked with youths and their families as a psychotherapist and spent a year and a half in the Child and Adolescent Crisis Stabilization Unit. From 2014-2020, she worked as a psychotherapist at Williams College. Crane currently serves First and South Church and Cathedral of the Beloved as an independently licensed clinical social worker. She and her husband of 40 years, Doug, have three children and two young grandchildren, with another on the way.
 
 Daniel Lowenstein is a lifelong Berkshire resident and a local business owner. He graduated from Monument Mountain Regional High School in 2009 and attended Bates College and UMass Amherst with a major in sociology. After several years of employment in various managerial positions, Lowenstein opened a retail storefront with his brother in 2019, where he manages the business full time. His hobbies include painting, photography, blacksmithing, metal sculpture, hiking and fiction writing. As someone who has personally experienced drug addiction and incarceration, Lowenstein says it is both an honor and an exciting opportunity to be part of an organization that offers aid and guidance to the formerly incarcerated.
 
Roberta McCulloch-Dews is the Vice President of Marketing at Greylock Federal Credit Union. She previously served as Director of Administrative Services and Public Information Officer in the Mayor's Office for the City of Pittsfield. A communications professional with more than 20 years of experience, McCulloch-Dews began her career as a newspaper journalist in 2000 and later transitioned to marketing communications and public relations. She serves as a trustee on the board for the Norman Rockwell Museum and is also a board member of the Girl Scouts of Central and Western Massachusetts, the Samuel Harrison Society and the Berkshire Immigrant Center. She is a youth mentor with Rites of Passage Empowerment (R.O.P.E.) and a founding member of the Equity and Diversity Committee for the Central Berkshire Regional School District. McCulloch-Dews is a former commissioner on the Berkshire County Commission on the Status of Women. In 2015, she was selected as a finalist for the Berkshire Trendsetters Changemaker Under 40 award, and in 2016, she was part of the inaugural class of Berkshire Community College's 40 Under Forty winners. She is the host of the award-winning podcast, “Backstory – Let's Hear It.” She graduated from New York University with a bachelor's degree in print journalism and, in 2019, earned a master's degree in social and public policy from SUNY Empire. McCulloch-Dews and her husband, Warren Dews, Jr., have three children, Warren III, West and Kennedy.
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First Responders Pull Truck From Pontoosuc Lake

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass.—First responders performed a rescue at Pontoosuc Lake on Friday, Oct. 30, after a truck ended up in the water. 

The driver, who was not identified, was taken to Berkshire Medical Center following the incident.

Deputy Chief Neil Myers said the Pittsfield Fire Department was dispatched for a water rescue incident at the boat ramp off Hancock Road at 9:30 a.m. 

There was one occupant in the truck who had climbed onto the vehicle's roof when they arrived. The white vehicle had floated across the channel near the ramp and landed on the waterbody's base; one corner of the roof was peeking out of the water when iBerkshires arrived around 10 a.m. 

Myers relayed that a witness saw the truck driving into the water; that was the initial report. On the way, first responders received another call reporting the truck had floated across the channel, and the caller was unsure if the person got out. 

With this information, PFD dispatched a full assignment: three engines, a ladder truck, and a rescue. Pontoosuc Lake is drawn down right now, with a maximum depth of about 15 feet in that area. 

Two firefighters were deployed in cold-water suits to make contact with the driver.  They assessed him, provided a life jacket, and put some lines in for safety.

Worried about hypothermia, firefighters planned to keep the man on top of the truck until a boat arrived. Though, Myers said when the boat was launched off the ramp, the man swan dove into the lake and swam to land. 

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