CHP Dental Assistant Wins State and National Awards

04:00PM / Sunday, September 22, 2024Print Story | Email Story

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Blake Smith topped the excellence bar in late June when he won first place at the National Leadership & Conference and Skills USA Championship, where his skills were tested with 40 other national competitors.

The event, which took place in Atlanta, is tied to vocational and trade schools and programs around the U.S. and it draws thousands of competitors from different trades and vocations around the U.S. Prior to Atlanta, Blake won the Massachusetts competition, which also had 40 dental assistant competitors.

"CHP now has the best dental assistant in the U.S., working right here at Neighborhood Dental Center alongside our excellent dental care team," said Nicole Wilkinson, who is CHP's director of dental operations.

Wilkinson hired Blake just two days into his training rotation at NDC, which was part of his vocational program at McCann Technical School in North Adams. Blake, who is 32, had been an occupational therapy assistant until deciding on a career change to dental assisting. He found the training he needed at McCann.

SkillsUSA, according to its website, is "a partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce...A nonprofit national education association, SkillsUSA serves middle-school, high-school and college/post-secondary students preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations."

SkillsUSA is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Labor as a successful model for employer-driven youth development training.

The Skills USA competition tests contestants in fields ranging from robotics to manufacturing technology, criminal justice, firefighting and bakery and pastry arts. Digital cinema production, carpentry and automotive service are among many other skills measured in the competition.

Blake had to demonstrate his skills in instrument passing, high volume evacuator placement (suction), retraction, illumination and other skills dentists need at their side as they do dental procedures—not unlike the skills a surgical technician brings to an operating room.

"I love this job, and working at CHP brings me great joy, knowing that I'm helping to provide health care and dentistry to my community," said Blake. "I feel pride knowing that I'm making a difference alongside dentists I work with, and with this excellent dental care team at NDC."

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South County Celebrates 250th Anniversary of the Knox Trail

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
06:18PM / Sunday, January 11, 2026

State Sen. Paul Mark carries the ceremonial linstock, a device used to light artillery. With him are New York state Sen. Michelle Hinchey and state Sen. Nick Collins of Suffolk County.

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. —The 250th celebration of American independence began in the tiny town of Alford on Saturday morning.

Later that afternoon, a small contingent of re-enactors, community members and officials marched from the Great Barrington Historical Society to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center to recognize the Berkshire towns that were part of that significant event in the nation's history.

State Sen. Paul Mark, as the highest ranking Massachusetts governmental official at the Alford crossing, was presented a ceremonial linstock flying the ribbons representing every New York State county that Henry Knox and his team passed through on their 300-mile journey from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston in the winter of 1775-76.

"The New York contingent came to the border. We had a speaking program, and they officially handed over the linstock, transferring control of the train to Massachusetts," said Mark, co-chair of Massachusetts' special commission for the semiquincentennial. "It was a great melding of both states, a kind of coming together."

State Rep. Leigh Davis called Knox "an unlikely hero, he was someone that rose up to the occasion. ... this is really honoring someone that stepped into a role because he was called to serve, and that is something that resonates."

Gen. George Washington charged 25-year-old bookseller Knox with bringing artillery from the recently captured fort on Lake Champlain to the beleaugured and occupied by Boston. It took 80 teams of horses and oxen to carry the nearly 60 tons of cannon through snow and over mountains.

Knox wrote to Washington that "the difficulties were inconceivable yet surmountable" and left the fort in December. He crossed the Hudson River in early January near Albany, crossing into Massachusetts on what is now Route 71 on Jan. 10, 1776. By late January, he was in Framingham and in the weeks to follow the artillery was positioned on Dorchester Heights.

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