Kilpatrick Athletic Center launches SwimAmerica Lessons

04:19PM / Saturday, September 07, 2024Print Story | Email Story

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The Kilpatrick Athletic Center (KAC) has partnered with SwimAmerica to launch a series of Fall 2024 swimming lessons to the community.

SwimAmerica, a national learn-to-swim program designed to teach new swimmers endurance and technique, works with coaches and athletic trainers to offer lessons to their communities, including community members beginning their training at the age of three.

"Our goal in SwimAmerica is to teach water safety skills and excellent swimming technique. Every child that participates in our program will come out of it with more knowledge and skills to be safe in the water," said Assistant Aquatics Director John Vitell. "The Kilpatrick Athletic Center is proud to have been offering swim lessons for 26 years — since its opening."

The Kilpatrick houses an eight-lane, 25 yard pool with a minimal level of chlorinated, locally-sourced spring water, which leaves the water soft and without chemical smell or taste, while also making it safe to swim in.

The Kilpatrick will launch lessons for young swimmers hoping to kick the school year off with a splash beginning Tuesday, September 10th. Pre-School learners - ages three and four - will begin Tuesdays, Sept. 10 to Oct. 29, 5:15 - 5:45 p.m; Parent and Infant (seven months to three years old) lessons begin Tuesdays, Sept. 10 to Oct. 29, 4 - 4:30 p.m.

School-age lessons for ages 5 to 13 will begin Tuesdays and Thursdays, Sept. 10 and 12 through Oct. 29 and 31, and will be broken into separate groups: Stations 1-5 will have class from 4:30 p.m and 4:40 - 5:10 p.m. Stations 6-10 will attend from 5:20 - 6:00 p.m. If this is your child's first time in our program, please register them for a stations 1-5 time slot, where the first class will be an evaluation.

Programs consist of seven lessons. Lessons will pause the week of October 1st and 3rd and resume the following week. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to John Vitell at jvitell@simons-rock.edu

Learn more about the Kilpatrick Athletic Center here: https://simons-rock.edu/student-life/campus-experience/kilpatrick-athletic-center/index.php

Tags: bard college, swimming,

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Friperie Berkshires Moves to New Great Barrington Location

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:27PM / Tuesday, February 10, 2026

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Friperie Berkshires has moved to new quarters on Bridge Street and will reopen this Friday, Feb. 13.

Owner Elizabeth Conkey has relocated her store from Lee above the Berkshire Co-op at 34 Bridge St., in Suite 101.

The space is twice the size of her former spot in Lee, which is better for her, she said, because she needed it to add more services for her customers.

"I've been looking for a permanent space to land, and this space is perfect, because it's twice the size of where I was and I needed more room because I'm going to start doing men's and children's clothing as well," she said.

Besides adding more clothing, she will also be implementing a wardrobe service for her customers.

"In addition to just constantly stocking the store and finding treasures, I started offering a capsule wardrobe service," Conkey said. "So it has three tiers, and basically, people can hire me depending on what tier of offering they're interested in, and I will go and thrift specifically for them based on a mood board that they send me from Pinterest, or just a file folder of photos that they like."

Conkey kept the Lee storefront through the summer and had been renting a space in Great Barrington from a friend. She finally found her new space around New Year's, and will be launching a website.

She is excited to open just a short distance from where she was.

"I've really grown pretty exponentially in the past six months. I'm launching a website. I'm so thrilled with the growth. So it just seems like appropriate to finally move into the forever space, and have room to spread out and offer more categories of clothing," she said.

She also wanted to express her gratitude for her customers and friends' support to keep her dream alive.

"I am just so grateful to the people who have continued to shop in my store from the day it opened. Through the holidays, I had an incredible holiday season, and I just felt so grateful to everybody for telling their friends at my store, sharing about what they bought on Instagram, encouraging co-workers to come in," Conkey said. "It's been such a gift to feel welcomed by the community, and I feel like now my customers are becoming my friends, and I'm just excited to start this new chapter and never have to move all of this inventory ever again."

She will be open Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. She encourages people to check her Instagram for updates on clothes and her store.

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